Vodafone set for dividend hike tomorrow
VODAFONE is set to report its full year results tomorrow and analysts are expecting a mixed bag.
City consensus predicts a drop in operating profits to £11.4bn from £11.8bn last year, dragged down by troubled European markets.
Revenues are set to rise slightly from £45.9bn to £46.2bn, with pre-tax profits climbing from £11bn to £12.8bn.
But the gem in Vodafone’s results is likely to be its annual dividend, which is set to get a seven per cent boost to 9.5p and catapult the telecoms giant to Britain’s top dividend payer.
Vodafone doled out £6.7bn to shareholders in fiscal 2011, accounting for about 10 per cent of dividends in the FTSE 100.
Analysts at Espirito Santo said, “There are reasons for optimism… All guidance metrics are likely to be met and the outlook for full year 2012-2013 could be better than expected.”
Chief executive Vittorio Colao is likely to be questioned at tomorrow’s results presentation about Vodafone’s £1bn bid for Cable & Wireless Worldwide.
In its offer announcement last month, Vodafone insisted that it wanted to buy the ailing telecoms group in full – a deal for which it needed 75 per cent shareholder approval.
But Orbis, CWW’s biggest shareholder with a 19 per cent stake, has been throwing spanners in the deal’s direction and threatening to vote against the scheme.
The British cable company publishes its results this morning. An Orbis spokesperson said: “Given the difficulties that CWW has encountered and the uncertainty its customers face around the future direction of the company, we would not be surprised if Monday’s results show a continuation of CWW’s disappointing trends.
“Having said that, we do not believe that CWW’s current performance is a good indicator of the inherent value of the company.”
Vodafone’s shares have fallen from 181p to 164p since the start of 2012.