Two Italians at the helm of Vodafone after Verizon: Paolo Bertoluzzo, current CEO of Vodafone Italy and Southern Europe, arrives on October XNUMX, who will become number two as chief commercial and operations officer of the Group led by Vittorio Colao.
After the stellar sale of the American stake in Verizon which yielded the record sum of 130 billion dollars, Vodafone will thus strengthen the Italian presence. Curious fate that of Colao and Bertoluzzo, who have been working together for 14 years in Vodafone and who in the 90s they were together even at the time of the sale by Mannesmann right at Vodafone, operation destined to remain the queen of all acquisitions for its stratospheric amount, immediately followed by Verizon-Vodafone.
That Vodafone will find Bertoluzzo after the American deal with Verizon? It is Bertoluzzo himself who explains it to FIRSTonline in his first public outing on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti workshop underway at Villa d'Este in Cernobbio. "On the one hand it will be a Vodafone with greater financial flexibility and greater investment capacity and on the other a Vodafone which will no longer have a financial stake in Verizon which over the years has contributed to generating cash and which obliges the team at the top even more of the group to lead the development strategy with great responsibility and attention to value creation and return on investment for shareholders, who remain our guiding stars. We will certainly be even more under the eye of the markets and shareholders who will want to understand how we invest the new resources.
This will also be true for Italy where Vodafone, after the Verizon operation, repurchased 23 percent of Vodafone Italy which was in the hands of the Americans, obtaining full control”.
Despite the extraordinary importance that the American sale has had and has, precisely the exit from a stake – albeit only financial – in the USA, raises questions about the lack of a direct presence of Vodafone in America and Bertoluzzo does not deny it. “Vodafone already has the multinationals operating in the USA as major customers. For us, continuing to follow them remains important, also through partners, as we already do in 40 countries around the world".
Of the 130 billion dollars it collects from Verizon, Vodafone will allocate about 100 to shareholders and keep 30 to invest in the most attractive business opportunities. “What is clear – explains the new number 2 of Vodafone – is that the Verizon operation will not change our group's international strategy but will accelerate it. The greater financial flexibility will allow us to focus on the four guidelines that distinguish Vodafone namely: accentuate the differentiation from our competitors on the quality of mobile networks by considering 4G – the new generation of mobile networks – as a great opportunity; further improve the quality of our customer services; develop growth in business services to be world leaders in this segment; accelerate development in fixed networks and convergence. All this will take place organically or with direct investments without necessarily resorting to acquisitions".
“If there are – specifies Bertoluzzo – important acquisition opportunities to accelerate our strategy we will take them into consideration but at the right price, because our compass is always rigor and the creation of value for shareholders. We will shortly be presenting the 'Spring' Project to which we have earmarked 6 billion pounds of investment for development and growth. cwe believe in the future of telecommunications, in our geographical perimeter (Europe plus emerging markets) and we believe in the validity of our strategy”.
But what will change for Vodafone in Italy? “First of all – explains Bertoluzzo – the weight of Vodafone Italia will increase by almost a third with the return of the shareholding that was in the hands of Verizon: this will allow us to accelerate the development strategy also in our country, where, despite the economic crisis , we invest about one billion euros a year”.
Will Vodafone also go shopping in Italy with an eye on Fastweb as the market has been whispering for some time? "We do not comment on specific operations - Bertoluzzo cuts short - but it is clear that the fixed network has become 'core' in our strategy, so much so that in 5 years we have invested 2,5 billion euros in the fixed network in Italy and that we have fiber services in Milan with Metroweb and we offer fiber services in 27 other Italian cities on a par with Telecom Italia. As for Fastweb, we certainly have great esteem for the company and we will evaluate the opportunities that will present themselves, the compatibility with our strategy and the pricing conditions”.
Vodafone will certainly play an active part in the consolidation in the belief that the future of the market will leave room even more than today for large operators with large investment capacities but also with a long-term strategy and vision. "User areas being equal, in the US there are only 4 telephone operators while in Europe there are about thirty with different rules for each of the 27 countries: this fragmentation is an anomaly that is not good for the market and is not good for to consumers and which must be overcome with an aggregation process of which we can see the first signs. This is valid for Europe and it is valid for Italy”.
It is certainly a pleasant curiosity that at the top of such an important and global group as Vodafone there are two Italians and that the CEO Vittorio Colao wanted Paolo Bertoluzzo at his side, whom he has recently praised as a great expert on markets and mobile and fixed networks. But isn't this an oddity and hasn't it made some shareholders turn up their noses? “Absolutely not – replies Bertoluzzo – because Vodafone is a true Anglo-Saxon-style public company, where what matters are competence, results and the ability to create value. For me it is an honor to take up the new position at the top of Vodafone and a great challenge. However, let me also say that, contrary to what is often believed, in the world of international business the Italian spirit of a manager is by no means a handicap because our ability to work, our passion and also our ability to communicate and work as a team are often very popular”. Two Italians at the helm of Vodafone after Verizon is good news.
