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Technology Stocks : Vodafone-Airtouch (NYSE: VOD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (2808)	5/30/2000 7:38:00 AM
From: MrGreenJeans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3175

Vodafone AirTouch Has Full-Year Earnings of 104 Million Pounds; Sales Rise By Anjana Menon London, May 30 (Bloomberg) -- Vodafone AirTouch Plc reported a fiscal-year profit after a loss last year, as it became the world's biggest mobile-phone company with a June acquisition of U.S.-based AirTouch. The shares rose as much as 6.7 percent. Net income in the year ended March 31 was 104 million pounds ($156 million), or 0.34 pence a share, compared with a loss of 1.1 billion pounds, or 3.64 pence, a year earlier. The numbers were adjusted to include results from AirTouch for both periods. Vodafone, which this year bought Mannesmann AG for $166 billion, is selling assets to finance expansion into high-speed mobile-phone services. The company today said it will sell Orange Plc, the U.K.'s No. 3 mobile company, to France Telecom SA for 26.9 billion pounds, and plans to sell shares later this year in traditional phone businesses Infostrada SpA and Arcor. ``We think Vodafone is a well-run company, but there is still scope for investors to de-rate telecommunication stocks given the investments these companies will have to make,'' said James Ross, an analyst at ABN Amro in London, who rates the shares ``hold.'' Vodafone shares rose as much as 18.75 pence to 300p. The company paid 5.9 billion pounds for a so-called ``third- generation'' mobile license in the U.K. last month. Investments for such wireless services, 40 times faster than existing channels, could cost the company 50 billion euros across Europe, analysts estimate. Sales in the year rose 27 percent to 8.9 billion pounds from 7 billion pounds. Expansion The company had pledged to sell Orange to win regulatory clearance for the Mannesmann purchase. Vodafone today announced plans to sell shares in the fixed- line assets it acquired through the Mannesmann purchase -- Infostrada SpA of Italy and Germany's Arcor. The Infostrada sale could take place in September or October, and the Arcor sale could happen a couple of months later, said Vodafone Chief Executive Chris Gent in a conference call with journalists. Vodafone will use funds from the asset sale to purchase new mobile licenses in Europe to offer the high-speed mobile services. The U.K.'s largest operator, which now has a debt of about 17 billion pounds, said borrowings will increase as it spends more to expand services in Europe. The sale of assets could pare debt to 10 billion pounds by March 2001, the company said. ``That depends on it being a buoyant asset market. If the market conditions continue this way, it will make it complicated for Vodafone,'' said Ross. Plunging share prices have derailed the share-sale plans of about 20 other European companies in about a month. Vodafone Pacific, the Australian unit of the company, called off a planned A$1.87 billion ($1.1 billion) initial public share sale as telecommunications stocks fell worldwide. The Latin American market is the ``highest priority'' for expansion for the Vodafone, Gent said.