2024 saw the best outperformance for the telecoms sector since 2013 (and the third best since 2000) and ironically this came in a year with one of the lowest announced M&A volumes. We believe this is a testament to improved perception of the underlying fundamentals.
Vodafone’s H1 earnings call recently wrapped up with the stock having sold off during and after the call. We review our thoughts on this and in this note show some further analysis on what would be required to meet the FY EBITDA guidance based on the new comments given in the call.
Last week, we reviewed the UK altnet market. So this week, we turn our attention to Germany and how the fibre challengers are developing in that market. We have done a lot of work over the past few months on the MDU market in Germany for TeleColumbus and OXG. So now, we specifically focus on Deutsche Glasfaser and the recent UGG/ Infrafibre deal, as these players mount their challenge against DT in the SDU market.
Over the weekend, it has been widely reported that the upcoming Budget this Wednesday will include a 2pp rise for employer national insurance tax. In this brief note, we run through the financial implications of this for the UK telecoms companies (BT, VMO2, TalkTalk and Vodafone) and who is most exposed.
Today, our colleague Chris Hoare has published two thematic notes looking at Sub-Saharan African telecoms companies. These focus on the potential for market structures and revenues to improve, and especially after periods of currency weakness (which has been notable in Egypt and Turkey).
Clearly the biggest issue for them is whether the merger with Vodafone UK will be approved or not. As one would also expect they couldn’t be drawn on any new substantive comments on this while the CMA process is ongoing. For our detailed thoughts from May on the CMA Phase 1 findings on that deal, please see our expert call on the topic.
This morning Vodafone finally announced that they have sold a further 10% stake in Oak Holdings (the Vantage Towers holding company) to the consortium led by GIP and KKR, for €1.3bn of proceeds. In this brief note, we run through what this implies for Vodafone and other tower valuations.
European Telecoms has had a reasonable first half of 2024 – up 7% vs. the market up 9% - and is up 15% since January 2022 – bang in line with the EU market. The sector trades in line with the market on P/E for similar earnings growth, but we still see two major structural levers of upside:
Vodafone’s decision to sell Softbank KK in Japan back in 2006 and swap the proceeds into Hutchison India in 2007 might well go down as one of the worst telecom M&A swaps in history. Vodafone’s exposure to India has caused nothing but difficulties for them, but this morning Vodafone announced that they have sold an 18% stake in Indus Towers through a block trade, raising €1.7bn in gross proceeds.
Vodafone’s FY results have less to unpack than usual, with Spain and Italy now treated as discontinued items, as a sign of the ongoing simplification of the group. New guidance given for FY25 looks supportive and is marginally ahead of consensus.
Perhaps two of the most significant questions facing the UK telecoms market this year are i) whether the Vodafone/ Three merger will go through, and ii) whether the altnets can be successful operationally and have access on ongoing funding.
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