Vodafone may be planning European reorganization (Europe)
Telecom giant Vodafone Group Plc may be planning a reorganization post the departure of European chief Michel Combes, according to a report by BN.
As per the report, one scenario involves separating Vodafone’s European operating companies into a group consisting of western Europe and a second entity made up of Turkey, central and eastern Europe. A third group would include Vodafone’s assets in southern Africa and India.
The report reveals Paolo Bertoluzzo, 46, who runs the Italian unit, and Serpil Timuray, the head of Vodafone Turkey, are among internal executives seen to take on greater responsibilities, alongside Michael Joseph, the former CEO of Vodafone’s Kenyan subsidiary who is now director of global payments, said Will Draper, an analyst at Espirito Santo Investment Bank in London.
Vodafone said Deputy Chairman John Buchanan will stand down from the board this summer. Buchanan, a Vodafone director since 2003, was appointed chairman of British semiconductor designer ARM Holdings Plc (ARM) this month. Luc Vandevelde, the former Marks & Spencer Group Plc chairman, will become a senior independent director.
Turkcell announces termination of Vivacom acquisition process (Turkey)
The leading mobile phone operator of Turkey, Turkcell, has announced that the Company has received notification regarding the termination of the sales process they had participated in for the 93.99% stake in the Bulgarian telecom operator, Bulgarian Telecommunications Company AD (Vivacom).
According to reports, Chief Executive Officer Sureyya Ciliv, said that Turkcell continues to evaluate acquisition opportunities for similar buyouts.
The company had 34.1 million subscribers as of June 30th, 2011.
Vodafone raises full year profit forecasts as results beat estimates (Europe)
Vodafone Group PLC, a global telecom leader, has reportedly raised its full year profit forecast from US$ 18.3 billion to $18.9 billion, on account of increased sales in India and new internet based tariff plans. According to reports, England based Vodafone aims to improve data sales from smartphones including Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android based smartphones in an attempt to counter its declining revenues in Europe.
As per sources, Vittori Colao, CEO, Vodafone has said that they have been gaining market share in most of their major markets and are achieving sustained growth in the key areas of data, emerging markets and enterprise. Further, reports suggest that Vodafone has shifted its focus towards tiered pricing for data billing with a larger emphasis on consumption-based tariffs.
According to industry reports, Vodafone’s sales for the first half rose by 4.1 percent to US$ 37.7 billion as compared to the estimated $ 37.5 billion. Further, it has been reported that while service revenue has been high in Turkey and India, at 28 percent and 18 percent respectively, Spain and Italy saw a decline in the same amounting to 9.3 percent and 3 percent respectively. Consequently, it has been reported that Vodafone plans to reduce its tariffs in Spain in order to counter the competition.
Write-downs condemn Turkcell into posting a loss (Turkey)
Turkcell is a telco based in Turkey. The company has released its Group revenues for the second quarter that reflected a revenue rise by 1.7% to $1.34 billion. However, the company posted a net loss of $12.6 million as compared to $251.02 million the previous year.
The company attributed the loss to one-off items below the EBITDA line that cascaded from the impact of the non-cash devaluation in Belarus, in addition to a provision with regard to the Competition Board fine. Discounting the one-off items below the EBITDA line, the net income for the Group would have stood at $280.80 million.
On the other hand, consolidated revenues were up 7.6% as compared to the previous quarter; mainly attributed to the 6.9% increase in mobile voice, in addition to revenues garnered from season-based superior usage of the expanding customer base across Turkey as well as the surge in mobile internet and services revenues by 9%. On top of that, the Group’s top line rose by 9.1%, in the wake of the subsidiaries’ contribution.
As on 30 June, 2011, there were about 61.7 million subscribers for the company; figure calculated based on the number of subscribers in Turkcell, in addition to each of its subsidiaries and unconsolidated investees. Mobile subscribers in Astelit and BeST, in addition to the company’s operations in Northern Cyprus and Fintur were also taken into account.
In the wake of the rise in the number of subscribers in Turkcell Turkey and Fintur, there was an increase of 1.3 million Turkcell Group subscribers, in comparison to the last quarter.
Enduring legal fight that involves Turkcell shares ends in favor of Russia’s Altimo
The Russia based Alfa announced the win with regard to a long standing legal tussle involving the ownership of shares in Turkcell, the Turkish mobile network. As per the judgment passed by the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, it was valid on the part of Alfa in appropriating shares owned by Turkish conglomerate, Cukurova, in Turkcell in the wake of a number of defaults committed by Cukurova Group as stipulated in the loan agreement offered by Alfa to Cukurova Group in November 2005.
In view of a number of defaults by Cukurova Group, Alfa appropriated the shares representing the Cukurova’s stake in Turkcell which Cukurova charged to Alfa as security for its outstanding loan of $1.35 billion, in the year 2007
Currently, Altimo officially holds 26.9 percent stake in the Turkish mobile network, increased from 13.7 percent. The formal incorporation of the additional shares will only suffice once Cukurova’s 30-period for appeal at the UK’s Privy Council expires.
37 percent of Turkcell is also owned by TeliaSonera that has been struggling to gain control of the company.
Vodafone’s quarterly revenues up 3.5 percent
The second quarter results announced by Vodafone show that the telecom operator has witnessed 3.5 percent rise in revenues to $18.8 billion. However, the company does not release its quarterly profit figures.
India at +16.8%, Turkey +32.1%, in addition to Vodacom +7.8% represent its strong service revenue growth while Germany’s +0.2% and UK’s +1.7% added to Vodafone’s resilient performance. Apparently, Vodafone faces a testing market in southern Europe with Italy’s service revenue at -1.5% and Spain deteriorating to -9.9% as a result of price reductions.
Vodafone’s net debt stood at $37.4 billion, in the wake of a receipt of $11 billion from the sale of its 45% stake in France’s SFR.
According to Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive, they have made a good start to the year in view of the robust results despite challenging macroeconomic conditions across southern European economies and the impact of cuts to mobile termination rates. In addition, revenue from their key focus areas of data, enterprise and emerging markets continues to grow strongly. He also believes that Vodafone’s presence across a broad geographical mix; in addition to improving market positions hold them in good stead for the rest of the financial year.
On the other hand, Vodafone’s capital expenditure stood at $1.95 billion, representing a rise of $326.12 million on a year on year basis, mainly attributed to LTE investment in Germany and network enhancements in Vodacom.
Akbank launches m-money transfer app (Turkey)
Akbank has released a money transfer application in collaboration with Mobinex. The company launched ‘Para Gonder’, which is powered by Mobinex’ Smartface platform.
Para Gonder app users can access money transfer services directly from their mobile phones. Customers can send money from their Akbank account or credit card to another Akbank account, credit card, ATM, or to credit card accounts at other banks.
Life:) introduces new roaming add-ons for businesses (Ukraine)
life:), which operates in Ukraine, has introduced two new roaming add-ons for corporate subscribers, namely ’50 SMS in roaming’ and ’100 MB in roaming.’
The add-ons will be available in Russia, Turkey and Europe, each package comes with a subscription fee of US$12.39 (with VAT, without PF), with one SMS in roaming being charged with US$0.24 and 1 MB with US$0.12. Both add-ons come with an availability period of 10 days.
Beeline Tajikistan sashes roaming rates in Turkey, Afganistan
Beeline Tajikistan has launched the Hot Roaming offer for subscribers. The company has slashed the roaming rates by 50% in Turkey and Afghanistan under the service option.
Subscribers are offered outgoing calls to Tajikistan for US$ 1.80 per minute when using the service.
Azercell looks to cut mobile roaming rates (Azerbaijan)
Azercell, which operates in Azerbaijan, is in discussions with operators in several countries to lower roaming tariffs.
According to Azercell PR department head Fakhri Abbasov, the company is focusing on Russia, Turkey, and several European countries.
Currently, discounts of 20 to 50 percent are applied for customers roaming on TeliaSonera’s network and certain operators in Russia and Turkey.
