What’s up with… Vodafone, Telenor, BT

• Vodafone Italy CEO to depart
• Telenor reports improved results in the second quarter
• BT attracts potential bidders for Italian unit

In today’s industry news roundup: Vodafone Italy CEO is to step down in November, with unit’s CFO taking the reins until sale to Swisscom is closed; Telenor boasts “solid results” across the Nordics and Asia, helped by a sharpened focus on cybersecurity and technology investments; two private equity firms have reportedly emerged as potential bidders for BT’s assets in Italy following accounting scandal; and more!

Vodafone Group has announced that Aldo Bisio will step down as CEO of Vodafone Italy on 15 November to “pursue an external opportunity”. He will, however, continue to serve as a non-executive member of the Vodafone Italy’s board and oversee the unit’s sale process to Swisscom. The current CFO of Vodafone’s Italian operation, Sabrina Casalta, will become its interim CEO until the completion of the transaction. “In Italy, despite challenging market conditions, Vodafone has competed successfully under Aldo’s leadership and developed a number of innovations adopted in our other markets. More recently, he has also led the simplification and streamlining of our group commercial operations,” said Vodafone Group CEO Margherita Della Valle. Read more.

Telenor has reported a 4.5% year-on-year increase in service revenues in the second quarter, to Norwegian krone (NOK) 16.3bn (US$1.5bn), while total revenues remained flat at NOK19.9bn ($1.8bn), driven by “solid results” in both regions in which it operates – the Nordics and Asia. Net income was up from NOK821m ($76.3m) to NOK2.5bn ($232m), while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 3.8% to NOK8.8bn ($817.8m). “Telenor is on track and continues to deliver on a strategy that works. We still have strong and profitable growth and solid cost control in the Nordic region – headed by Sweden and Finland in the last quarter. In Asia, we have seen a positive uplift in Thailand, partly because of tourism picking up again, as well as synergies,” said Sigve Brekke, Telenor’s CEO. In its earnings report, the company noted that its strategic investments in technology and cybersecurity have provided it with “a solid foundation for further growth”. Some of these moves include setting up Telenor Cyberdefence in June to develop security offerings for the corporate market, its strategic partnership with Nvidia as part of Telenor’s plan for AI investments, and an investment it made in datacentre company Skygard.

BT Group’s Italian business is reportedly garnering takeover interest. According to Bloomberg, private equity companies Asterion Industrial Partners and Nextalia have emerged as potential bidders and are preparing to submit indicative offers ahead of a late July deadline. However, the report suggests that negotiations are still taking place and that the prospective suitors could still back out. BT is allegedly looking to offload its Italian arm following an accounting scandal in 2017 that resulted in a £530m provision in its accounts for related costs and an extensive trial that led to the conviction of eight people, some of whom were former employees, earlier this year. BT Italia offers security, cloud and networking solutions to large and multinational companies, as well as wholesale clients.

Telia has reported slightly improved performance for the second quarter of the year, with total revenues up 2.3% year on year to 22.4bn Swedish krona (SEK) (US$2.1bn) and service revenues up 2.5% to SEK19.4bn ($1.8bn). The Swedish operator’s net income grew from SEK917m ($86.8m) to SEK4.8bn ($454.6m). “Revenue momentum in our telco operations continued in the second quarter, and customer satisfaction improved further,” noted the telco’s president and CEO, Patrik Hofbauer. He also highlighted the stability in the telco’s mobile services revenue and across its Enterprise division in Sweden where “revenue is stable after a period of strong growth in larger customer projects”. However, Telia reported a decline in copper-related revenues and a modest growth of its broadband portfolio. It also reported mid-single-digit service revenue growth in Lithuania, while its Estonian operation revenue improved slightly. Telia outlined “less satisfactory” performance in Finland where it faces headwinds brought on by legacy services and where it is simplifying its business through a phase-out of low-margin, non-core services. Norway is also seeing slowing momentum after what Hofbauer described as “a strong development” in the past year. He added that the company aims to improve its operational efficiency and execution speed by simplifying and streamlining the business. Read more.

Boost Mobile, the retail wireless service provider owned by EchoStar, has updated its brand in a bid to lure customers away from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. In a statement, Dish (which merged with EchoStar earlier this year) announced that the prepaid and postpaid plans of Boost will now be offered under the united umbrella of Boost Mobile. In addition, the company unveiled new simplified pricing and unlimited data plans starting from $25 per month, and pointed out that its portfolio allows its customers to access “more towers than any other carrier, offering coverage to 99% of the country”. According to the provider, Boost Mobile also has a “unique cloud-native Open RAN 5G network technology” that can ensure “fast 5G speeds and the newest network technology”.

- The staff, TelecomTV