NEWSLETTER
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The last years have not been friendly to the Vodafone group (LSE: vod) Price of long -term shares and shareholders. Nor have the last 10, 20 and 30 years, to start. In fact, possessing Vodafone actions has been a fairly ungrateful work during most of this century.
Vodafone volatility
While writing, Vodafone shares 75.62p, valuing this well -known telecommunications group at £ 19.2bn. This is a mere fraction of its maximum market value. In fact, during the Dotcom bubble that exploded in the spring of 2000, Vodafone was the largest quoted company in Europe.
But time has affected this unique corporate goliath. Although the Vodafone stock has increased by 12.3% for 12 months, it has collapsed by 32.8%, almost a third, in the last half decade. Worse, the price of shares is at the same levels today as in September 1995, almost 30 years ago. Wow.
What is more? Ftse 100 Share has struck in a routine during the past year. Vodafone shares were negotiated from a minimum of 63.06p on August 8, 2024 to a maximum of 79.5p on September 17, 2024, without signs of any next break.
Another loser
Over the years, I have listened to runners and analysts that refer to the European telecommunications market such as “the value cemetery”. With Vodafone, this certainly seems to be true, especially after the group reduced its cash dividend last year.
For registration, my wife and I bought this action in December 2022 for its high dividend yield. We pay a 90.2A participation for our possession, so we are breastfeeding a loss of capital around a sixth (-16.2%). However, the juicy dividends of Vodafone have padded the blow of this decline, making things better than they seem.
Good news finally?
However, with € 33.2 billion (£ 28 billion) of net debt in Vodafone's general balance, changing this oil tanker will be a difficult task. But maybe, finally, is there light at the end of the tunnel for shareholders?
First, the fusion proposed by Vodafone with rival Three UK was approved by the United Kingdom competition regulators in December. This will allow the merged entity to invest up to £ 11 billion in updates of 5 g with greater confidence.
Secondly, while the company does not increase income in its central European markets (especially the United Kingdom and Germany), it is expanding in emerging markets. These rapidly growing regions include Africa, the Middle East and Türkiye, with Africa now representing a fifth of group income.
Third, Vodafone is in conversations to sell his participation in the Dutch joint company Vodafoneziggo to his 50/50 partner Global Liberty for more than € 2 billion (£ 1.7bn). Although Vodafoneziggo was created in 2016, he could not lead to a greater problem between these two telecommunications titans. Liberty also bought a 5% participation in Vodafone in 2023.
In short, I was unhappy with Vodafone's decision to reduce his dividend, but the group must generate effective to invest in future growth. Fusion with three United Kingdom will create a British giant with 29 million customers, which makes it #1 of the United Kingdom. Telecoms is a scale business, so I appreciate this movement.
Finally, despite our loss of capital, we intend to cling to our Vodafone actions. I qualify the current CEO Margherita Della Valle, but she needs more time to bring new life to this giant limping!
(Tagstotranslate) category. Dividend-Shares (T) category. Investiging
