VODAFONE GROUP PLC
TRANSACTION IN OWN SECURITIES - Voting Rights and Capital
Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone") announces today that it has transferred to participants in its employee share schemes the following number of its ordinary shares of U.S.$0.11 3/7 each, which were previously held as treasury shares.
| Ordinary Shares | |
| Date of transfer: | 30 May 2012 |
| Number of ordinary shares transferred: | 290,035 |
| Highest transfer price per share: | 172.6p |
| Lowest transfer price per share: | 92.99p |
Following the above transfer, Vodafone holds 4,467,431,910 of its ordinary shares in treasury and has 53,815,409,249 ordinary shares in issue (including treasury shares). Each such ordinary share has one vote per share. Vodafone has 49,347,977,339 ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares).
The total number of voting rights in Vodafone is 49,347,977,339. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, Vodafone under the FSA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
This announcement does not constitute, or form part of, an offer or any solicitation of an offer for securities in any jurisdiction.
Orange and T-Mobile owner Everything Everywhere unveils £50m 'tuition' plan - menmedia.co.uk
The owner of Orange and T-Mobile unveiled a £50m investment plan that will help customers know their BlackBerries and their Apples.
A new development academy will train up to 12,000 staff, ensuring stores and call centres have experts dedicated to specific devices and their operating systems, such as Apple iOS, BlackBerry, Android and Windows phones.
Everything Everywhere, which has a combined customer base of 27 million, said the move represented a "fundamental shift" in how mobile phones are sold by redesigning its customer service around handset operating systems.
Its investment plan aims to make staff experts in "all aspects of customers' digital lives" and has been sparked by the explosion in demand for smartphones.
Customer service staff will also be trained to answer other enquiries, such as billing without having to transfer customers between departments.
Chief customer officer Jackie O'Leary said: "It is our goal to create the best customer experience in the UK, so that customers can trust us with their digital lives."
The company, formed in 2010 by the merger of T-Mobile and Orange, is also refreshing and modernising its high street store estate.
It has already announced it will start selling both T-Mobile and Orange products across all of its stores. Earlier this year it started selling pre-pay T-Mobile dongles in Orange stores, and Orange broadband will be available in T-Mobile stores from this week.
Everything is spending more than £1.5bn over the next three years in bringing faster and more reliable coverage to its customers amid the boom in smartphones.
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Vodafone Iceland Implements FTS' Comprehensive Billing and Customer Care Solution - TMCnet
Vodafone Iceland (News - Alert) recently announced that it has selected the new version of Leap Billing, a comprehensive end-to-end billing and customer care solution from FTS (News - Alert), to ensure a more flexible charging and billing structure for its mobile, fixed, and broadband service offerings. FTS provides communications and content service providers with an advanced range of billing, customer care and policy control solutions.
As a convergent communication service provider, Vodafone Iceland’s suite of services include mobile, fixed, broadband internet and data services. By deploying the FTS Leap Billing software, the company is expecting to enhance and strengthen its charging, billing and customer management system. The latest version of Leap Billing seamlessly integrates with Vodafone Iceland's Microsoft (News 
In a release, Ardis Bjork Jonsdottir, Billing Manager Vodafone Iceland, said that, "We found Leap Billing to be one of the most flexible, robust and cost-effective solutions available on the market. Thanks to FTS' Leap Billing we have increased the flexibility of our billing and have also increased our ability to create new and innovative services."
Leap Billing has been designed to substantially bring down the time and cost of any change requests which will make it easy to customize billing for newly introduced services. The back office at Vodafone Iceland has seen faster speed of marketing at a lower cost of ownership since the adoption of FTS' billing and customer care solutions.
Yitzchak Feldman, FTS' vice president of Sales and Marketing, said,"This latest implementation at Vodafone Iceland is a further vote of confidence in FTS' telecom billing solutions. Leap Billing addresses the needs of convergent service providers such as Vodafone Iceland, and supports them as they continue to offer innovative, cross-network services."
FTS’ Leap Billing has been designed as a flexible and convergent billing, customer care, and online charging solution, which can bring about significant reduction in OPEX (News - Alert) and CAPEX, while securing the operators customer base with enhanced level of service quality. The solution, which has been based on the business-control technology (DoTree) from FTS, can capture events which are delivered via single or multiple network technologies all in real-time, while also responding to them in accordance to pre-configured business policies and actions.
Edited by Brooke Neuman
Vodafone Group plc : LAUNCH OF BREAKTHROUGH MASS-MARKET SMARTPHONE - 4-traders (press release)
31 May 2012
VODAFONE LAUNCHES BREAKTHROUGH MASS-MARKET SMARTPHONE
Smart II a step-change in delivering the mobile internet to value-focused consumers worldwide
31 May, 2012. Vodafone today announced the launch of the Smart II, a breakthrough smartphone for the mass market, which offers an unprecedented combination of high performance and low cost in a package attractive to the large majority of consumers currently missing out on the smartphone revolution.
The Vodafone Smart II has twice the processing power of the most expensive and sought-after smartphones available just three years ago, but at a fraction of the price. It offers new smartphone users a high-end mobile internet experience and an uncompromised level of functionality, including:
a highly responsive HVGA capacitive touchscreen with 64 million colours;
brand new Broadcom 21552 with 832MHz processor and 512MB of RAM - the computing power of high-end smartphones 3 years ago;
high-speed 3G HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity;
3.2 megapixel camera with white LED flash; and
the latest Assisted GPS (AGPS) technology for rapid and accurate mapping and navigation functions.
The Smart II is also highly customisable, with interchangeable back plates and rims in 16 colour variations.*
Vodafone has designed the Smart II to introduce non-smartphone consumers to a new world of content and services that will save them time, money and help them manage their daily lives, including:
high-speed mobile internet browsing, including voice-activated Google Search;
access to the latest news, entertainment and transport apps for information on the move;
emails, contacts and calendars;
social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter;
money-saving services such as the Vouchercloud, a location-based shopping discount voucher app; and
dedicated Vodafone apps which make it simple for customers to track their spending and download the best new apps and music.
Patrick Chomet, Group Terminals Director said: "The Smart II is one of the most important devices we have ever introduced. It delivers a level of performance, functionality and quality that is traditionally the preserve of high-end smartphones but at an exceptionally affordable price. We believe the Smart II could represent a tipping point in the evolution of the market, bringing a new wave of consumers to the supermobile world for the first time."
The Smart II will be available across Vodafone markets and partner markets this summer and will be priced under 99, launching first in the UK priced at 70.
- ends -
*Availability of colours varies from market to market.
Notes to Editors
1. Google, Android, YouTube and other marks are trademarks of Google Inc; Facebook is a trademark of Facebook, Inc, and Twitter is a trademark of Twitter, Inc.
2. The Vodafone Smart II will be available in 25 markets across the Vodafone footprint by early summer.
About Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies by revenue with approximately 404 million customers in its controlled and jointly controlled markets as at 31 March 2012. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries across five continents and more than 40 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com.
For further information:
Vodafone Group
Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 664444
The Best Large-Cap Income Opportunity I Can Recall - Motley Fool UK
Just how large will future dividends from Vodafone be?
Representing about 6% of the FTSE 100, Vodafone (LSE: VOD) is one of the biggest and best dividend payers in the blue-chip index -- and that payout is growing at an impressive rate. Throw in special dividends, and Vodafone could be the best income opportunity in years.
For 2011, shareholders received 8.90p per share from Vodafone. For the year ending March 2012, this figure rocketed to a massive 13.52p.
There are two reasons for this large rise. The first is growth in Vodafone's ordinary dividend. The second is a 4p special dividend for 2012.
Dazzling dividend
For 2010, Vodafone's dividend was 8.31p per share. Around that time, the company announced its intention to grow the payout by 7% per annum for the next three years. If Vodafone can meet this target for 2013 (Vodafone has a March year-end, so we are in Vodafone's 2013 now), then the ordinary part of the dividend would hit 10.2p per share. At today's share price, that alone is nearly a 6% yield.
The kicker here is the possibility that the additional 4p special dividend may be repeated.
The special dividend came from Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZW.US). VZW is a US mobile network operator formed as a joint venture between Vodafone and Verizon Communications. Vodafone has 45% of VZW and Verizon Communications owns the rest.
Verizon holds the key
Until recently, VZW had been using the cashflows in its business to finance acquisitions and investment. This changed last year when VZW announced it would pay its owners a dividend. Vodafone's share of this amounted to £2.8bn for 2012. Vodafone then used the VZW dividend to pay its own shareholders a £2bn special dividend.
Vodafone is the junior partner in VZW. Verizon Communications decides whether VZW pays a dividend or not. To ascertain the future income stream Vodafone represents, investors must get a measure of the probability and magnitude of dividends from VZW.
I spoke with Tom Gidley-Kitchin, the Vodafone analyst at stockbroker Charles Stanley. Tom researches Vodafone and its industry day-in, day-out. So how does he assess the dividend situation at Vodafone? Tom says:
"While Vodafone has committed to increasing its ordinary dividend by 7% per annum next year, there is no such public commitment from VZW to its shareholders.
"VZW is producing more than $1bn of free cash per month. Unless VZW spends this money on acquisitions, I envisage continued dividend payments to Vodafone."
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VZW has a net cash position. The company is also enjoying large revenue growth. Consensus estimates of Vodafone's future dividends reveal a number of analysts are expecting special dividends to be paid during the next two years.
If VZW pay Vodafone again in 2012, the dividend to Vodafone shareholders could hit 14.2p (10.2p ordinary dividend, 4p special). At today's price, that's a massive 8.4% yield. Normally when a company is paying that level of dividend there are concerns on its sustainability. Of course, VZW might not pay out. Even in this scenario, however, Vodafone could still pay the normal 10.2p dividend.
Currently, it feels like investors are looking at Vodafone in a 'glass half-empty' mood. More bullish investors might think that, just as Vodafone has increased its normal dividend to shareholders, it might be possible for VZW to increase its dividend to Vodafone as well.
(No doubt the effect of VZW has crossed the mind of City dividend legend Neil Woodford, who counts Vodafone as one his largest income holdings. You can read more about Neil Woodford's market-beating dividend portfolio in this free report: "8 Shares Held By Britain's Super Investor")
Vodafone is a dominant player in its markets. This position brings high visibility of earnings, something investors usually pay a premium for. With the normal dividend already substantial and the possibility of more special dividends, Vodafone looks the best large-cap income opportunity I can recall in a long time.
David Kuo challenged his Motley Fool analysts to pinpoint the attractive sectors of 2012 -- and they delivered! Discover the industries they selected in this new Motley Fool guide -- "Top Sectors Of 2012" -- while it's still free!
Further investment opportunities:
> David does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned here.
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