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.

Network equipment vendor Nokia Solutions and Networks said Wednesday it has been awarded a five-year network upgrade contract with Vodafone PLC (VOD). NSN will modernize and expand its existing radio network.

Barclays sees several challenges ahead for Vodafone post-Verizon Wireless, not least increasingly tough European mobile trends for the group and how it can make best use of its underleveraged balance sheet.

More intriguingly, there is the ongoing press speculation that a bid by AT&T is looming for the UK mobile giant.

After considering the potential impact on Vodafone of these challenges, Barclays analyst Maurice Patrick and his team see the balance of risk for the stock skewed to the upside, especially with regards to the AT&T scenario given historical M&A precedents.

Patrick notes that Vodafone’s European mobile service revenues fell a hefty 7.8% in the third quarter and that the group is underperforming its peers on this front. He anticipates an improvement in underlying trends in 2015, due partly to easier comparatives, but cautions that “fundamentals her e remain tough due to challenging macro conditions and competition”.

Project Spring, Vodafone's ambitious multi-billion pound network investment initiative – much of it aimed at Europe – could help the group not only offer a differentiated product, especially versus smaller rivals, but also enable it to make better use of its under-leveraged balance sheet, according to Patrick.

But a bid from AT&T would clearly offer more immediate upside. Barclays currently rates Vodafone at ‘overweight’ with a price target of 260p. This, however, provides only limited upside on any AT&T bid materialising.

A fuller valuation analysis by Patrick applies historical European M&A multiples of 7.2 x EV/EBITDA to Vodafone and suggests a take-out price of around 300p for the group.

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 222.15 222.15 - 270.00 Resumes

VODAFONE ACQUIRES 100% OF VODAFONE INDIA

Vodafone announces that it now owns 100% of its Indian subsidiary, Vodafone India Limited ("VIL").

In March 2014, Vodafone completed the acquisition of indirect equity interests in VIL held by Analjit Singh and Neelu Analjit Singh, taking its stake to 89.03% of VIL. Today Vodafone acquired the remaining 10.97% of VIL from Piramal Enterprises Limited. The combined cash consideration for both transactions was INR 101.418 billion (GBP1.0 billion(1) ).

(1) At an exchange rate of GBP1.00: INR 100.9713.

Final Results

Highlights1

· Group revenue down 1.9% to £43.6 billion; full year organic service revenue decline 4.3%*

· Q4 organic service revenue declined 3.8%*2, or 4.0%* including Italy at 100% from 21 February 2014

· EBITDA3 down 7.4%* at £12.8 billion; organic EBITDA margin down 1.3 percentage points

· Adjusted operating profit3 £7.9 billion, including £3.2bn for Verizon Wireless to 2 September 2013

· Pro forma full year 13/14 guidance met: adjusted operating profit £4.94 billion, free cash flow £4.84 billion

· Completion of Verizon Wireless disposal, US$85 billion returned to shareholders; £45.0 billion pre-tax gain

· £19.3 billion deferred tax assets recognised in relation to the Group's historical tax losses, £17.7 billion of this announced H1

· Impairments totalling £6.6 billion in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic and Romania

· Planned organic investments of around £19 billion over the next two years, including Project Spring

· Final dividend per share of 7.47 pence, giving total dividends per share of 11.0 pence, up 8%

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 206.43 270.00 260.00 Reiterates

Goldman Sachs Neutral 206.43 240.00 225.00 Reiterates

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Neutral 206.43 - 238.00 Reiterates

Ex-divi wed 11th Jun (7.47p)

Credit Suisse Outperform 207.38 204.00 - 245.00 Reiterates

Jefferies International Hold 207.38 204.00 240.00 210.00 Reiterates

Tricky to forecast this one, imo. Was going to buy for the divi, but the downside was that I would probably have to take a loss on the share sale......or wait forever for the sp to recover. Brokers don't seem too keen either!

SALE OF VODAFONE'S STAKE IN VODAFONE FIJI TO THE FIJI NATIONAL PROVIDENT FUND

Vodafone1 announces that it has sold its entire 49% shareholding in Vodafone Fiji Limited to the Fiji National Provident Fund for a cash consideration of FJ$160m (£51m)2. Vodafone expects to continue to have a presence in Fiji through a Partner Market agreement.


Notes
1 The seller is Vodafone International Holdings BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Vodafone Group
2 Fijian dollar to GBP exchange rate of 3.13

Worth a read :- Telecoms executives cheer Brussels’ antitrust decision on E-Plus

VODAFONE AND BMOBILE ANNOUNCE PARTNER MARKET AGREEMENT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

up date tomorrow should see the sp rise well above 200p

Interim Management Statement

Highlights

· Group service revenue declined 4.2%*; Europe -7.9%*, AMAP 4.7%*

· Evidence of commercial improvement in Germany (-4.9%*), Italy (-16.1%*) and UK (-3.2%*); Spain (-15.3%*) weaker on renewed competition

· India (10.3%*) and Turkey (3.7%*) continue to show strong momentum; Vodacom was flat* impacted by an MTR cut in South Africa

· Strong progress on Project Spring: 4G footprint across European markets up to 52%; 6.7 million 4G customers; Group data traffic up 73% year-on-year

· Unified communications strategy advanced further: KDG integration commenced; completion of Ono; fibre alliances in Ireland and Portugal announced

· Free cash outflow on a guidance basis of £0.6 billion reflecting Project Spring investment; net debt £14.1 billion (£11.0 billion including Verizon loan notes), before Ono consideration of £5.7 billion

VODAFONE EXTENDS ACCEPTANCE PERIOD FOR COBRA OFFER

Small gap to be filled.

skin sold at 203p bought tsco 273p looking for 390p in short time

VODAFONE TO COMPLETE ACQUISITION OF COBRA

Vodafone shares turn higher on Softbank report - traders

(Reuters) - Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.L) shares turned higher late on Tuesday, with traders citing a Nikkei report suggesting the British mobile operator may become a takeover target for Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank Corp (9984.T).

A Vodafone spokesman said the company had no comment. A SoftBank spokeswoman also declined to comment.

Verizon Communications (VZ) Q3 2014 Results - Earnings Call Webcast