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.

Well that shouldn't do the SP any harm in the short term should it?

Yum Yum - Vodafone to receive $3bn in Verizon Wireless dividend payment

Verizon Wireless, the US mobile phone company, is to make a $7bn (£4.4bn) dividend payment that will hand $3bn to Britain's Vodafone with the aim of easing tension between the transatlantic partners.

In the announcement, Verizon Communications, which owns 55% of the joint business, said it would receive $3.85bn of the dividend payment. Vodafone, owner of the rest of the business, will receive $3.15bn, according to a regulatory filing.

Here is the RNS - VODAFONE TO RECEIVE £2.1 BILLION DIVIDEND FROM VZW

VODAFONE TO RECEIVE £2.1 BILLION DIVIDEND FROM VERIZON WIRELESS IN JUNE 2013


Vodafone today announces that the Board of Verizon Wireless has approved the payment of a $7 billion (£4.6 billion) dividend. As a 45% shareholder in Verizon Wireless, Vodafone's share of the dividend will be $3.2 billion (£2.1 billion). The dividend is due to be paid by the end of June 2013.

Vodafone will provide an update on how it plans to utilise this dividend at the time of its preliminary results announcement on 21 May 2013

Citigroup Buy 0.00 215.00 215.00 Reiterates

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 0.00 - - Reiterates

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Buy 191.85 200.00 200.00 Reiterates

Kapil Sibal go-ahead for settling Vodafone tax row

NEW DELHI: A change of guard in the law ministry has also resulted in a change in stance on commencing conciliatory talks with telecom giant Vodafone in the Rs 11,000 crore tax dispute. Law minister KapilSibal has agreed with finance ministry's suggestion to start a dialogue to settle the claims, although the matter would have to be cleared by the Cabinet. Sibal, who is also the telecom minister, is learnt to have met finance minister P Chidambaram over the weekend.

Telecom minister Sibal, who took additional charge as law minister on Monday, revived the case by seeking a fresh opinion of Attorney General G E Vahanvati on the issue. Vahanvati, who was earlier not in favour of the move, is learnt to have done a U-turn on the matter and now backs the talks.

Goldman Sachs Buy 0.00 220.00 230.00 Reiterates

Highest close since 2002 -197.70p.

All eyes on Vodafone's Colao for signs on Verizon

LONDON | Fri May 17, 2013 8:19pm BST

(Reuters) - After months of speculation, Vodafone's Vittorio Colao will be under pressure next week to set out whether he may sell its prized stake in Verizon Wireless in what would be one of the biggest deals ever.

Chief executive for five years, Colao has said only that he has an "open mind" on Vodafone's 45-percent stake in the U.S. operator, whose majority owner, Verizon Communications, is interested in buying out the British company's share.

Vodafone’s decision time over US partner Verizon

Ahead of its full-year results, the telecoms group is under pressure to decide the fate of its stake in the Verizon joint venture. Christopher Williams reports.

Under normal circumstances, Vodafone’s chief executive, Vittorio Colao, would be thrilled with his stock market performance this year. Shares closed at 198.25p on Friday, their highest price since early January 2002, when the company’s value was tumbling in the dotcom crash.

In reality, however, Vodafone’s rise by almost a third in 2013 serves mostly to remind him of the massive strategic decisions he is under pressure to make. City excitement has been driven by Vodafone’s relationship with Verizon, the American telecoms giant which has expressed an interest in buying its British partner’s 45pc stake in Verizon Wireless. Colao is under pressure to respond decisively.

Not long now for the finals chaps.

About 7 minutes :-)

Final results

. Group revenue down -4.2% to £44.4 billion; full year organic service revenue decline -1.9%*; Q4 -4.2%*

. EBITDA down -3.1%* at £13.3 billion; organic EBITDA margin down -0.1* percentage points excluding restructuring costs

. Verizon Wireless ('VZW') service revenue up 8.1%*; our share of profits up 30.5%* to £6.4 billion

. Adjusted operating profit above guidance, up 9.3%* at £12.0 billion; adjusted EPS +5.0% at 15.65p

. H2 impairment charge of £1.8 billion, giving a full year total of £7.7 billion in Italy and Spain

. Free cash flow towards the higher end of guidance at £5.6 billion after capital additions of £6.3 billion

. Final dividend per share of 6.92 pence, giving total dividends per share of 10.19 pence, up 7.0%


. Further good progress on data: organic revenue growth 13.8%*; European contract smartphone penetration 54.8%, up 9.9 percentage points year-on-year

. Vodafone Red now in 14 markets; 4.1 million customers as at 12 May 2013; 67.1% of consumer contract revenue in our European markets from integrated plans in Q4

. Unified communications strategy accelerated: acquisitions of Cable & Wireless Worldwide ('CWW') and TelstraClear; fibre deployment planned in Spain and Portugal; wholesale access agreement in Germany

. VZW dividend: £2.4 billion dividend received in December 2012; £2.1 billion due in June 2013, to be retained in the business

. Aiming to reach ten million Vodafone Red customers by March 2014, and to extend our 3G footprint at 43.2 Mbps and LTE coverage across our five major European markets to around 80% and 40% respectively by March 2015




Guidance for the 2014 financial year2

. Adjusted operating profit in the range of £12.0 billion to £12.8 billion.

. Free cash flow of around £7.0 billion, including the £2.1 billion VZW dividend to be received in June 2013.

3 1/2 % divi at present SP rather attractive but the Verizon factor still to be accessed could be the big bonus for the SP in the medium/longer term.

Stan - isn't that a yield of 5.16%? (10.19 /197.60) *100.

I was referring to the Final Divi and not the total skinny.

Didn't get both then eh! :-))

Worst then that.. I didn't get any -):

Reuter's take

LONDON | Tue May 21, 2013 7:24am BST
(Reuters) - Vodafone posted its largest ever quarterly fall in key organic service revenue on Tuesday, prompting it to keep hold of a dividend from its U.S. arm and reinvest it into the business and not return it to shareholders.

The world's second largest mobile operator, at the centre of intense speculation as to whether it will sell its U.S. arm in one of the world's largest deals, posted a 4.2 percent fall in organic service revenue, in line with forecasts.

That however marked a further acceleration from the 2.6 percent fall in the third quarter and reflected the tough economic conditions in its core European markets and the regulatory cuts which hit a peak in the three months to the end of March.

Liberum Capital Buy 197.85 210.00 210.00 Reiterates

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Buy 197.85 200.00 200.00 Reiterates

Another view that sums it up.

Vodafone denies shareholders Verizon dividend

"But herein lies the dilemma - Verizon Wireless was the one bright spot in the results. Pre-tax profits from Verizon Wireless jumped 30.5% year-on-year to £6.4 billion. Selling the stake could mean that Vodafone will not have a contingency plan to fall back on."

Vodafone says comfortable with Verizon Wireless status quo

LONDON | Tue May 21, 2013 1:02pm BST
(Reuters) - Vodafone said on Tuesday that it was very comfortable with its successful U.S. joint venture Verizon Wireless, but if an offer materialized that would benefit it more than the status quo, it would consider it.

Vodafone's partner Verizon Communications has made little secret of its desire to buy out Vodafone in a multi-billion dollar deal that would be one of the largest of all time.

Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao told journalists at a briefing that if an offer came in that was more advantageous than the current joint venture situation, the company would consider it.