Vodafone Acquires Telsim, Coins the Euphemism of the Day (VOD)

In the conference call slides for its acquisition of Telsim, Vodafone uses the phrase "Vodafone approach is similar to that for a new licence." Translation - here is a 9m subscriber business which has to be rebuilt from scratch - Telsim capex for the past three years combined was apparently only $120m. Based on the $4.55bn transaction value and performance KPIs from H1 2005, it looks like Vodafone is paying $523 per sub for a user base which on average (again my calculation) appears to generate undiscounted lifetime subscriber value of $540. It's tempting to conclude that there is a slight air of desperation to make up for lost time in emerging markets.

« Any opinions expressed on the Seeking Alpha sites are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the opinion of SeekingAlpha or its management. »