The big maneuvers have started at Vodafone. The new boss of the British operator, Margherita Della Valle, announced on Tuesday her intention to cut 11,000 jobs over three years in order to simplify the telecommunications group which, according to her, “must change”.
“Our performance has not been good enough,” she said on the occasion of the publication of the group’s annual results, while a drop of 1.5 billion euros in cash flow is expected. This year. “My priorities are customers, simplicity and growth. We are going to simplify our organization, reduce our complexity to regain competitiveness”, declared the one who exercised his interim duties until his confirmation last month.
This job cuts project is the largest ever undertaken by Vodafone, which employs around 100,000 people. Vodafone has recently cut jobs in several of its major markets: 1,000 jobs were cut in Italy earlier this year and, according to press reports, the company plans to cut around 1,300 jobs in Germany.
Investor Battle
Vodafone reported revenue stagnation at 45.7 billion euros, with good sales in Africa but poor revenue in Europe, its main market. If the operating profit increased to 14.3 billion euros over the period against only 2.8 billion during the previous financial year, it is mainly thanks to the 12.3 billion euros generated with the demerger of Vantage Towers , floated on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Vodafone, a heavyweight in the sector in Europe, has been carrying out a restructuring for several years which has notably led it to refocus on Europe and Africa. Last week, the operator and Emirates Telecommunications (e &), became the largest shareholder of the British telephony group a year ago, announced a “strategic partnership” agreement.
The e & group, which gradually increased its participation in the British operator for a year to reach 14.6% of the capital today, is officially designated “reference shareholder of Vodafone” in a press release.
At the beginning of May, press reports pointed to an imminent 15 billion pound merger of Vodafone with the Hong Kong holding company CK Hutchison in mobile telephony in the United Kingdom. Vodafone, which did not wish to comment on this information, indicated in October that it was in discussion to merge its operations in the country with Three UK a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, to join forces in 5G.
