Taking a lead from the 33 per cent crash in Q3 profits experienced by Telenor, City of London financial analysts are now fearing Vodafone might follow suit when it reveals its half-year results next week.
Like Telenor, Vodafone has a high exposure to emerging markets--with 120 million customers--and rising inflation is severely impacting the disposable income of cellphone users in these markets. The London Stock Exchange is especially nervous of telecoms firms at present given BT's massive profits warning issued late last week.
These concerns have seemingly been generated by Vodafone contacting industry analysts to gauge their latest forecasts, which drove speculation the company was attempting to subtly forewarn the market ahead of the publication of its results. Vodafone has denied this, claiming that the calls were routine, but its shares fell seven per cent, regardless.
But, to put these worries into perspective, nearly 80 per cent of Vodafone's revenue still comes from operations in developed markets, albeit that it counts on emerging markets for almost all of its growth.
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The Times
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