Proactive Investors - Vodafone (LON:VOD) investors still have no clearer picture of how the business will look once the widespread restructuring underway settles down.
A planned merger in the UK with Hutchison’s 3 has, as was widely expected, got stuck in the weeds of a regulatory investigation.
Iliad’s second offer to merge the two companies’ Italian businesses, meanwhile, was rejected with little else than a vague suggestion Swisscom might also be interested.
One deal that does seem to be going ahead is the disposal of the Spanish operation to Zegona (LON:ZEG) which received approval from the authorities in Europe and Spain this week.
Now widely regarded as the Vodafone telecoms investment trust (on a huge discount), analysts predict next week’s third-quarter update will again contain a lot of good intentions, minimal revenue growth and any (underlying) earnings improvement to come from self-help measures.
First-half results from the company showed revenue shrank 4% to €21.9 billion due to currency swings and disposals.
Interim operating profit tumbled 44% to €1.66 billion and, at the pre-tax line, it swung to a loss of €155 million from a €1.2 billion profit a year ago.