LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The telecoms regulator on Thursday fined the Greek unit of UK mobile giant Vodafone 19.1 mln eur for violating network regulations in a wire-tapping scandal that rocked the country last year.

The fine is the second handed to Vodafone Hellas over the case after a 76 mln eur penalty levelled by Greece's communication privacy watchdog last December.

Some 100 Vodafone cellphones in February 2006 were found to have been compromised by an illicit network that tapped sets used by Greek Premier Costas Karamanlis, his wife and several ministers from June 2004 to March 2005.

The tapping used software slipped into Vodafone's network by unknown perpetrators to illegally activate an Ericsson-made module permitting call interception.

On Thursday, the national telecommunications regulator EETT accused Vodafone of breaching regulations on the protection of telecommunications privacy, network maintenance and quality, and consumer protection.

The company rejected last December's fine as 'illegal, unfair and baseless.'

A Greek parliament committee collecting evidence on the case last November noted the involvement of three employees of telecoms giants Ericsson Hellas and Vodafone Greece, identified only by their initials.

'The whole system could not operate without Ericsson know-how and without access from within (Vodafone),' the report said.

The Greek branch of Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson has also been fined 7.36 mln eur over the case.

The parliamentary committee did not rule out the involvement of other people operating outside Greece.

The Greek justice department has opened an investigation into the case but nobody has yet been charged.

Days before the affair came to light, a senior Vodafone expert was found hanged inside his home.

The death of Costas Tsalikidis, manager of Vodafone Greece's network planning section, was linked to the case and his family suspects he was murdered.

Ex dividend tomorrow.

Vodafone CEO to lead new look at costs

18:41, Thursday 17 November 2011

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao is to lead another close look at costs across the group because he does not expect the economy to improve in many markets, he said on Thursday.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media (Frankfurt: 725292 - news) and Telecoms conference in Barcelona, Colao said Italy was at a crucial moment in terms of consumer confidence as a new government decides how to impose austerity measures.

It has also taken a recent writedown in Greece and Spain is hampered by a poor market structure and weak consumer spending, he said, but Britain, Germany and the Netherlands have held up well.

Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L - news) has a medium term target to achieve annual growth in organic service revenue of 1 to 4 percent and this metric was towards the lower half of the range at 1.3 percent in the second quarter.

"We gave (a forecast) of 1 to 4 in certain conditions and the reason for giving 1 to 4 was because you don't know exactly where you will end up," he said. "It depends so much on how the European thing will unfold.

"I honestly wish to be able to be a little bit higher which means that we have to do hard work on costs. I will start another big look at costs now until next year because I don't know exactly where the economy is going."

Colao, an Italian, said he welcomed the new government there and said it could bring in a combination of reforms to introduce austerity and also changes to bring development where it's needed.

"Do I think Italy is going to be hard for a number of quarters? Yes but a lot will depend on the consumer confidence more than the fundamentals," he said.

"The consumer confidence side of Italy is super important because there is a lot of wealth but wealth can either be spent or kept under the mattress. That is the delicate point and I think it is going to be clear in the next few months."

Despite the pressure on costs, Colao said the group could spend more on capital expenditure in certain markets, such as Britain, but said it would not be significantly higher.

Just closed here at 181.04.

Goldman Sachs note:
"We believe VOD will continue to pay out big and rising dividends (FY2011/12 yield: c.7.7%). There is also growing reason to believe VOD EPS will rise meaningfully after the next one or two years, even if key economies do not recover much. We initiate coverage with a BUY rating and a 230p target price.
We believe VOD’s share price will continue to edge up steadily. The shares are underpinned by VOD’s generous cash return policy, and VZW’s strong and growing cash flow (made more meaningful by VOD’s now cordial relationship with VZ). Risks in Europe feel increasingly tractable, partly because VOD keeps defending value well. We believe strong growth in demand for data will far outlast today’s challenges, and here VOD looks to have the execution skills and scale to extract appropriate value. Gloom about Europe still casts too heavy a shadow on VOD’s share price. VOD is far more than just a proxy for Europe: we estimate VZW and emerging markets (AMAP) generate, respectively, c.42% and c.14% of group value. For the three years to FY2013/14, we forecast a c.7% EBITDA-capex CAGR for VZW and c.7% for AMAP.
Spend on mobile data is fast becoming non-discretionary. Last November VOD said that even in Spain “despite everything, smartphone penetration is going up, data usage is up 15%, smartphone penetration is 30%”. The latter compares with c.22% for VOD Europe (rising by c.200bps/quarter); c.39% and c.53% for VZW and AT&T in the US (rising by c.300-400bps/quarter). (Note that most US customers are contract, but 62% of VOD Europe customers are prepay). AT&T thinks penetration will exceed 70%."

I saw that earlier Harry - the buggers could have waited until I'd bought back below @172.5. :-)

..Questor share tip: Vodafone remains a core holding

By Garry White | Telegraph – 1 hour 37 minutes ago

Following an upgrade to buy by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - news) on Friday morning, Vodafone shares are back within a whisker of their pre-crisis high.

Vodafone 179½p Questor says BUY

The shares hit a peak of 191.3p in November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) 2007 before the credit crunch sent all asset classes tumbling. The shares hit their all-time high during the dotcom boom, rising to almost 390p in June 2000.

Despite the fact the shares are close to multi-year highs, the shares are still yielding a prospective 7.5pc in the year to March 2012, rising to 7.6pc in 2013.

What's more, this yield does not include the 4p-a-share special dividend that will be paid on February 3. However, new investors are not eligible, as the shares traded without the right to this in November last year.

The special payment is a result of the resumption of dividends from its 45pc-owned Verizon Wireless joint venture in the US.

Goldman is very bullish on the shares. Analysts at the investment bank have set a target of 245p a share, forecasting a total return of 55pc over the next two years, with 38pc coming from a share-price appreciation and 17pc from dividends.

Vodafone shares are a core holding in any portfolio.

Buy.

..

Just to keep upto date :-


VODAFONE GROUP PLC
TRANSACTIONS IN OWN SECURITIES

Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone") announces today that it has purchased the following number of its ordinary shares of U.S.$0.113/7 each on the London Stock Exchange via Citigroup Global Markets U.K. Equity Limited. Such purchase was effected pursuant to irrevocable instructions issued by Vodafone on 8 December 2011, as announced by Vodafone on 8 December 2011.

Ordinary Shares


Date of purchase: 17 January 2012
Number of ordinary shares purchased: 8,000,000

Highest purchase price paid per share: 177.3p


Lowest purchase price paid per share: 173.9p

Volume weighted average price per share: 175.4051p

Vodafone intends to hold the purchased shares in treasury.

Since 20 June 2011, Vodafone has purchased 1,253,399,938 shares at a cost (including dealing and associated costs) of £2,117,557,344.

TRANSFER OF TREASURY SHARES

Vodafone also announces today that it has transferred to participants in its employee share schemes the following number of its ordinary shares of U.S.$0.113/7 each, which were previously held as treasury shares.

Ordinary Shares

Date of transfer: 17 January 2012
Number of ordinary shares transferred: 41,424
Highest transfer price per share: 175p
Lowest transfer price per share: 175p

Following both the above transactions, Vodafone holds 3,722,854,091 of its ordinary shares in treasury and has 50,092,045,668 ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares).

This announcement does not constitute, or form part of, an offer or any solicitation of an offer for securities in any jurisdiction.

20 January 2012

STATEMENT ON INDIAN TAX CASE JUDGMENT



Vodafone Group ("Vodafone") has received the judgment of the Indian Supreme Court. The Court has concluded that Vodafone had no liability to account for withholding tax on its acquisition of interests in Hutchison Essar Limited (now Vodafone India Limited) in 2007.

Tantalisingly close to 172.5.

Just bought back @172.34

UBS retains its Buy TP 200.00.

Liberum Capital reiterates Buy TP 180.00.


The dividend (including the Verizon payment) arrived this morning - which was nice !

RNS Number : 8419W

Vodafone Group Plc

06 February 2012

6 February 2012

VODAFONE AND WIND HELLAS TERMINATE DISCUSSIONS RELATING TO A POTENTIAL BUSINESS COMBINATION

Vodafone Group and Largo Limited, the sole shareholder of Wind Hellas, confirm that they have agreed to terminate discussions relating to a potential business combination between Vodafone Greece and Wind Hellas.

- ends -

RNS Number : 8231W
Vodafone Group Plc
04 February 2012


PIRAMAL HEALTHCARE TO ACQUIRE A FURTHER 5.5% STAKE IN VODAFONE INDIA


Vodafone Group ("Vodafone") and Piramal Healthcare ("Piramal") today announced that Piramal has agreed to purchase approximately 5.5% of the issued equity share capital of Vodafone India Limited ("VIL") from ETHL Communications Holdings Limited ("Essar") for a cash consideration of approximately INR 30.07 billion (£385 million1) taking Piramal's total shareholding in VIL2 to approximately 11%.

The transaction follows the settlement between Vodafone and Essar over the sale of Essar's approximately 33% stake in VIL, announced in July 2011, and the purchase by Piramal of approximately 5.5% of the issued share capital of VIL from Essar in August 2011. This completes the exit of the Essar group as a shareholder in VIL.

The transaction contemplates various exit mechanisms for Piramal, including both participation in a potential initial public offering of VIL and a sale of its stake to Vodafone.

- ends -

Interim management Statement.


9 February 2012


Strong performance in growth markets; southern Europe becoming more challenging


Group service revenue growth +0.9%(*); or +3.1%(*) excluding mobile termination rate cuts

Strong service revenue growth in India +20.0%(*), Vodacom +8.0%(*) and Turkey +23.5%(*); continued progress in Germany +0.7%(*) and the UK +1.1%(*)

Economic conditions in southern Europe showing further deterioration: greater service revenue decline in Italy, -4.9%(*); fall in Spain broadly stable at -8.8% (*) benefiting from our commercial actions

Continued strong growth in our US associate, Verizon Wireless; service revenue +6.8%(*) driven by strong customer and data revenue growth

Data revenue +21.8%(*); European smartphone penetration now 24.4% (Q3 10/11: 16.5%)

Free cash flow £1.5 billion; net debt £25.5 billion after £0.8 billion proceeds from Polkomtel disposal, £0.8 billion of share buybacks and £1.0 billion of spectrum payments

Full year guidance for adjusted operating profit and free cash flow confirmed

..Vodafone distances itself from CWW speculation

By James Hurley | Telegraph – 28 minutes ago

......
Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L - news) has distanced itself from reports that it is weighing up a £700m bid for troubled telecoms company Cable & Wireless Worldwide.

The collapse in CWW's market value since its demerger from Cable & Wireless in 2010 has reportedly attracted a number of suitors, also said to include private equity firm Apax Partners.

However, sources at the mobile phone group dismissed the speculation and said a bid was not being formally considered.

Analysts have suggested that CWW, which sells telecoms to large companies and the public sector, would be worth far more if it was broken up and sold off than it is as a single listed entity.

Any acquisition is likely to be delayed until CWW's new chief executive Gavin Darby is seen to have stabilised the embattled business.

CWW, worth £530m at Friday's closing price, has lost four-fifths of its value in two years, with a string of profit warnings, suspension of the dividend and the departure of two chief executives hitting its share price.

The group owns a global network of undersea cables, a UK broadband business, data centres and a hosted IT operation.

Mr Darby, who will provide details of his turnaround plan alongside a trading statement on Thursday, oversaw a 25pc reduction to the UK workforce when at Vodafone.

He is under pressure for provide more details on the financial performance of CWW's numerous divisions, which may make it easier for would be acquirers to pick up parts of the group.

It has been suggested that Vodafone is keen to purchase the company's main UK operations, which sell telecoms to companies.

The FTSE 100 mobile operator wants to grow its corporate business as the consumer phone market becomes saturated. Apax Partners, meanwhile, has a specific telecoms investment arm.

Vodafone, Apax and CWW declined to comment.

..

RNS Number : 2649X

Vodafone Group Plc

13 February 2012

13 February 2012

RESPONSE TO PRESS SPECULATION

Vodafone notes the recent press speculation regarding Cable & Wireless Worldwide plc ("CWW").

Vodafone regularly reviews opportunities in the sector and confirms that it is in the very early stages of evaluating the merits of a potential offer for CWW. There is no certainty that an offer will be made nor as to the terms on which any offer might be made. Any offer, if made, will be in cash but Vodafone reserves the right to change the specie of consideration. A further announcement will be made in due course, if appropriate.

In accordance with Rule 2.6a of the Takeover Code, Vodafone is required to, by not later than 5pm on 13 March 2012, either announce a firm intention to make an offer in accordance with Rule 2.7 of the Takeover Code or announce that it does not intend to make an offer, in which case the announcement will be treated as a statement to which Rule 2.8 of the Takeover Code applies unless the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers has consented to an extension of this deadline.

- ends -

skin just added 14397 . for the div

VOD not very happy today - maybe the CW. situation is about to be resolved.

skin which way and how much?