Vodafone Group Public Limited Company
Q4 2017 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 16 May 2017

[Vittorio Colao:]

So good morning, everybody. Thank you for coming to our year-end results presentation. A special welcome to Peter Moyo, who sits in the first row. Peter is the outgoing Chairman of Vodacom. Peter is going to run a listed company very soon. I think you're here to basically get the credit for the wonderful contribution. And hopefully, we'll also learn something, but Peter, it's great to have you here in such a good day's for Vodafone's results. So as we have had two big transactions post Project Spring, we thought it was good to change a little bit the format of today's presentation. I will go through a little bit longer illustration of results at the beginning, but I will not go into the details of the countries. You still have the details of the country in the appendix, and you will be able to get the usual things, but I will try to stay a little bit at the higher level. Then Nick will go through the financial review, as always. And then I will come back and give an update of our strategy across Vodafone post these transactions post Project Spring and try to give the sense of direction for Vodafone towards 2020. And then of course, Nick and I will take questions from you. A reminder

[Nick Read:]

Thank you. Thank you, Vittorio. Good morning, everyone. So our strategic moves to further strengthen our India and Netherlands business over the course of this year has resulted in an unusually complex set of results, so I will try to simplify the picture. All the numbers in our statutory report and as per the press release this morning now exclude India following the merger announcement with Idea. However, from an operational perspective, there is no change. The group remains highly focused on the management of the business both prior to completion and thereafter. With that said, moving to the first chart. To aid comparability with future reporting, this slide shows our results for the year both including and excluding the Netherlands. This year, our performance clearly demonstrates that we are achieving significant operational leverage, which is starting to positively impact our EBIT and our return on capital. On the left, organic service revenue grew 1.9% year-on-year and was broadly consistent across H1 and H2 as expected. In the middle, thanks to our Fit for Growth program, we grew adjusted EBITDA faster than service revenue, up 5.8%, accelerating through the year, significantly improving on last year's growth of 2.3%. On a guidance basis which includes both India and the Netherlands for the full year, EBITDA was up 3.4% to 15.8 billion. Turning to the chart on the right. To ensure the appropriate internal focus on return on capital, we have changed our annual bonus criteria for FY '18 from EBITDA to EBIT across the group. In this context, I'm very pleased to be able to report an inflection in adjusted EBIT during the fiscal year with acceleration of 12% organic growth in H2. Going forward, we expect our EBITDA growth to continue to outpace the increase in our D&A expenses, lifting our EBIT margins and our return on capital. Our reporting loss for the year was 6.1 billion, which reflects three large noncash exceptional items that are excluded from our adjusted earnings per share calculation highlighted on this chart. Let me focus on India. You will remember, at the half year, we booked a net 5 billion noncash impairment charge for our Indian business as a result of increased competition in the marketplace. Following the merger announcement with Idea, we have revised our fair value of the business and have written back 1.3 billion of the impairment in the second half. Excluding these items, adjusted EPS grew 17%, which includes the dilution of shares due to the issuance of mandatory convertible bonds at the end of the prior year. Due to -- as communicated previously, these bonds are aligned to our Verizon loan notes. And we are able to use the proceeds from the notes to buy back these bonds as they mature, avoiding dilution to our shareholders. Our effective tax rate this year was 25.4%, excluding India, consistent with our unchanged medium term guidance at a mid 20s tax rate. So turning to service revenue. As the chart on the left shows, our top line performance has broadly been consistent throughout the year. You will remember that, a year ago, we called out some exceptional items that delivered a strong Q4 in FY '16, which are listed at the bottom of the slide. Together with a full quarter impacts of the large MTR cut in Germany, the combined impacts of all of these was roughly 80 basis points on a quarter over quarter basis, so the true underlying Q4 performance was consistent with the previous quarters. So solid momentum into FY '18. However, as the chart on the right shows, we will now face the final year of EU regulation on roaming, which is a drag worth 300 million. This impact, together with the ongoing effect of the German MTR cut, is expected to weigh on our revenue growth by around one percentage point compared to last year. Turning to our three key strategic growth drivers, which Vittorio will cover in more detail later

[Vittorio Colao:]

Great. So let's talk about our strategy going forward. First of all, let's see what is Vodafone today and start from after -- transactions after Spring. If you look at Vodafone today, you really think of three things. One is Europe. Europe is now three quarters of the total. There is 0.6% growth, which is a combination of a healthy and positive 3.5 on fixed line and again broadband 1.2 million in the year, convergence. I will talk about these things. And mobile, slightly negative in the year because of the impact of MTR, roaming and other accounting changes. But as I said, growth in EBITDA, 100 basis points in the year. So this is three quarters of Vodafone. One quarter is AMAP ex India. Good growth, 7.7% growth; 150 basis points growth in EBITDA margin; and I would say, the classic sustained momentum of mobile customer growth and usage growth. Then the last part is India, where actually we had 220 basis points reduction in EBITDA. And as Nick has said and [certainly I said], the Jio impact will be seen for a few more quarters, but as you know, we have taken action there. Throughout the piece, we have improved in the year our asset composition in the Netherlands with the joint venture with Ziggo. Now we have a leading essentially competitor at par with the main operator, KPN, there. Nick has said there is some pressure in consumer, some pressure in SoHo, but if you think that we only have 25% of the Ziggo homes having mobile, again the opportunity there is more in the convergence direction. We announced yesterday that Vodacom and Safaricom simplification. And this has clearly a dual purpose

[Vittorio Colao:]

Let's start with James, and then we go this way with Polo. And then we come back, Maurice and all the others. James?

[James Ratzer:]

Two questions, please. The first one, on India, your new joint venture partner Idea has talked about the ideas that we could assume the bottom in the last quarter in terms of revenue trends and things can start to sequentially improve from here, was wondering if you'll assume the same trend in your own business looking ahead for this year. And secondly, looking kind of longer term in your European businesses, we're seeing an increasing number of moves to unlimited data offerings in Europe, so I'd be interested to get your kind of thoughts on how the industry progresses on that front. Does that potentially curtail the ability to monetize data in the medium to longer term?

[Nick Read:]

I'll do the first.

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes, you do the first. It's about guidance. You better do it first.

[Nick Read:]

Yes. I mean, in terms of India, as I sort of highlighted, when you look at sort of March performance versus January and you do it by segment basis, what we're really seeing is, since Jio announced their charging, we've seen a stability in total recharge values. We're also seeing a stability in high-value customers; medium-value customers, slight uptick, if anything; low-value customers, the same but more about ARPU capture as the market consolidates on SIMs. So I think it's a bit early to call the bottom of the market given it remains fragile. And Jio could always determine a new promotion, but what I'd say is that we're starting to see a stabilization on the important metrics going forward. And of course, the key date is September because that's when Jio entered the market. So we'll start annualizing, and that's when you should start to see some improvements on the year-over-year performances.

[Vittorio Colao:]

On the European question, let me say this. First of all, there is a difference between worry free and free. We like worry free because worry free is what liberates usage and what allows customers actually to appreciate the quality of the networks. Free is a little bit less of a good concept, at least in our view. And in the market, you see a wide variety of things. There's free content added to high-end packages. There is a kind of unlimited, which is really unlimited up to 5, 6, 7 gig and then it's constrained or choked in some support. In general we are more for the worry free rather than the free. And we will take actions and do commercial actions to liberate usage but in exchange of some monetization. I think that in unlimited unrestricted is actually not a great thing for the industry and which is why we will be more segmented, more focused. And then engines like the CVM and data analytics engines that we have now in our -- all of our offers. And again, South Africa was a great example. It will be crucial to be able to deliver the right offer to each customer without going into mass unlimited, generalized. Nick? Yes. Matt?

[Nick Delfas:]

So Nick Delfas from Redburn. Just going on Slide 22, I understand that's your incentive for '18, '19 and '20. And I guess it implies at least 10% growth at the average in free cash flow in '19 and '20 from the -- sorry, from -- yes, from the '17 base. But can you just talk about what happened to the equivalent chart from last year? So is that adjusted for deconsolidation of India? So just if you can talk a little bit about the incentive scheme. And then the second question is just on enterprise. How come you are still growing in enterprise mobile given all the bring your own device trends, roaming etcetera? So if you could clarify it a little bit, what's going on there? Thanks.

[Nick Read:]

Yes. So let me take the incentive, the moving parts on the incentives. See it as India is coming out. Obviously, India was going to be contributing in the outer years in terms of free cash flow. Obviously, today, it doesn't really generate free cash flow. However, you've also got a bit of FX movement. And then essentially you've got the 0.7 billion working capital Project Spring drag of FY '17 effectively coming out of the numbers when you start to think about FY '18 onwards. So that's like the positive factor on top of the growth of the business.

[Nick Delfas:]

And in terms of how you're rewarded from the equivalent chart from last year, so just that we understand how this works. So...

[Nick Read:]

So on the previous one, we stay with India performance within the plan, yes. So up until the year that India the completion happens, in the year the completion happens, we just put in what the target was for India in that one year, but all the ones leading up to completion, the actual performance is in there. So bottom line, management will be hit by, if this is what you're looking for, the Jio impact into the market.

[Vittorio Colao:]

We make it easier for ourselves. Let me put it in a simple way. And [indiscernible] would never allow us, anyhow. So on the enterprise thing, again I encourage you to talk to Brian, who is in the thing, but the high level answer is, first of all, the bring your own device thing, which is visible in some large banks, is not a generalized thing in the market. There are some institutions that are going into bring your own device, you pay for it; others that don't. We have a lot of additional services that we give, especially in the area of security, device management and other stuff, which is -- are considered important by a number of customers. And don't forget that we have more and more integrated fixed and mobile offers, which are now a large majority, especially the -- at the higher end, where this thing of bring your own device doesn't really play. Having said that, Brian has developed something that he will talk about, if you want, later in the individual sessions called BYOX, which is a very flexible offer that you give to large companies that want to go more into the bring your own device thing but still want to retain control of the service component. And so we have also adapted our offers to take into consideration that mean. Now having said that, probably we are also good in enterprise, so we'll continue to grow because of that. Yes, I think you had a question, yes, Andrew? And then -- yes.

[Andrew Beale:]

It's Andrew Beale from Arete. I just wanted to come back to the incentives and just to understand. I guess you've got the short term incentive, which you mentioned was EBIT. Is it exclusively EBIT in terms of the one year? Or can you just give us the weightings of those? And then the rest is the three year cash flow incentive. Is that correct?

[Nick Read:]

Yes. So see, the annual incentive, the short term incentive is 20% service revenue, 20% EBIT, 20% free cash flow. So the 20% that was on EBITDA has gone to EBIT. And then 40% is customer appreciation, which was a lot of the things that Vittorio was presenting. On the long-term incentive plan, it's free cash flow.

[Andrew Beale:]

Okay, thank you. And then just in terms of the EBITDA guidance. I guess your exit run rate was 6.2% growth in the second half. And you obviously had the 300 benefit from handset financing that you gave, 300 offset from roaming, but you also had some drags in the previous year for content and so on. Are there any other moving parts that we should be thinking about? Or is it you're coming in at six and you're really guiding to six and the other two -- the other things equals the -- equal each other out?

[Nick Read:]

Yes, look, I mean we're a large group. And of course, there are a lot of moving parts. And I think we are pretty transparent on anything material that happens in the group. So you're calling out a number. I could talk about content. I could call out synergies various other things bring. What I would say broadly is, yes, we're in a four to eight, midpoint being six, at that level. Yes, it does include U.K. handset financing, but it also includes a lot larger impact in terms of EU regulation impacts onto our results as well. So broadly speaking, I'd say our underlying performance is in line with the range.

[Vittorio Colao:]

David, yes?

[David Wright:]

Thank you. It's David Wright from Bank of America. Two questions, please. Just on the wider balance sheet, you've shown that the gearing comes down with the Indian deal, obviously assuming completion, from 2.6 times down to 2.2, give or take. The Indus transaction, and maybe an update on that, please, will bring you down to pretty well 2.0, thereabouts. With a 2.5% cost of debt, it feels somewhat underleveraged in this environment. Your -- obviously, your free cash flow is starting to cover your dividend, thereabouts this year or so, maybe a year after. So what is the plan for that balance sheet, as it were? And you mentioned briefly, I think, you analyze fiber projects one market that does stand out where you maybe are on the scale in fixed line ownership, as Germany. Could there be an opportunity to maybe even consider a fiber build plan in Germany co-led with Deutsche or et cetera? And then maybe a second, quick question, if I could, just on Italy. You flagged that as being one of your stand-out markets for cost cutting. I think a lot of the benefit, though, came with the 28-day billing both for mobile and fixed that laps H2, but could you talk a little about how you're thinking about the Iliad entry? Obviously, TI is quite front forward this kind of mobile. What you guys are thinking, thank you.

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes, let me take the whole of it because I don't want Nick to get into complicated gearing ratios. First of all, you correctly said that there are two ifs. First of all, of course, we need to complete first the main India transaction; second, update on Indus. And of course, we are in discussions. We intend to monetize that, but again how it happens and when it happens and how it interacts with the first deal is still to be seen. So we are not -- we don't have a time line. I don't have an update really to give you other than we are working flat out on both sides, the main side and the other one. The main side is progressing well. We have filed with CCI. We have filed with the stock exchange. We will do the court case. Once we have done the court, we can go to DoT, but it -- there are steps. And Indus, of course, requires talking to our two partners, the Idea one but also Bharti, because there is an interaction with what they do; and that we are again flat out on that as well. Once those things happen, we will make a judgment. And again, you mentioned fiber in Germany. We could mention a lot of other things. We will look at whether we have good investment cases, which is so far we haven't seen. We will look at them, and if they make sense, we will invest in them. We will look at different type of gearing and different type of shareholder remunerations, but it's a bit early now because neither one nor the other are short term. So you and I, we'll see each other probably again before that gets unlocked. Italy, Italy and Iliad

[Simon Weeden:]

[indiscernible] on the U.K....

[Nick Read:]

Sorry. Simon, can you just press [indiscernible]?

[Simon Weeden:]

It went red. It was very encouraging. Okay, that's better. Simon Weeden from Citi. I was, my first question was on the U.K. And your comments seem to be that, the second half of the coming financial -- the current financial year, will see an improvement in trends. And I wondered if you could give us any color around how bad the first half could be given that, in that context; and also whether you're taking into account any deemed consent rebase and how much that might be. And that was one question. The second question is just around 4.5G and 5G and what you see as being the most urgent contributors from a commercial point of view from the pipeline of new technological features that those provide and what we might see coming first and what the customer demand is, how you're framing your thoughts about that.

[Nick Read:]

I'd just do the U.K.. So what I would say is, I think as Vittorio clearly covered in his presentation, we really do see tangible clear results in terms of network and customer operations, so we are performing strongly in those areas, and therefore, that's given us a lot more confidence in terms, and visibility in terms of commercial momentum, which, again, we had a very good fixed net additions. Mobile net additions look low, but as because you talked Mobile is dragging on those net adds by about, I don't know, from memory, 25,000, something around there. So ultimately, there is good progression, which means that H1 will show some progress. It's just really the type of progress we're looking for will be more evident in H2. No, that's not a factor in our consideration if they...

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes. Evolution to 4G+, 5G, we see that as a continuum. We are moving. There's a big announcement today in Italy about 4.5G. We basically look at things with the customer's eyes. We are not keen to jump into technologies for the sake of them. But it's clear that 4.5G and then 5G will enable, at the same time, some interesting fixed wireless solutions. I'm not saying that it will replace fiber. I'm just saying that in certain places, certain areas, it will make sense, and also all the Internet of Things, low latency type of applications, which we are all working on. So we see this as an evolution. Johan is preparing the network. Single RAN, fiber, virtualization, all of these are investments that we will make during the Vodafone 2020 strategy, but things will be clearly ready for the development. But we are not keen on the technology. We are keen on the applications. Maurice, and then Jerry, and then Dhananjay, and then we go up there. Maybe you call them, if you will.

[Maurice Patrick:]

It's Maurice from Barclays. I guess, a question on Germany. On Friday, you saw the announcement that Drillisch and United Internet looking to combine their operations in the markets. I mean, do you think a combination of the two, which will leave some of the low end competitions, are making more for more easier? Or do you subscribe to the view perhaps that a more -- a so strong United Internet with the MBA MVNO contract [indiscernible] become more aggressive? I guess related to that, it's just on wholesale revenues. Did your guidance assume much run-off of the MVNO revenues you make, I guess, at the level, but also Germany perhaps related to this?

[Vittorio Colao:]

Very easy answer. I believe that, as always, everything depends on the wisdom of your competitors. So there are cases where consolidation is positive and cases where it's less positive. This one, I think, is positive because it will create a long-term viability for United, which otherwise was more less clear. And in general, we did increase in data. All these MVNO models are becoming -- at the end of the day, they're becoming difficult to support. So I think it will be positive. Of course, the wisdom is always in their behavior. And on the wholesale side we have in Germany, I think we have secured a couple of years of wholesale revenues from United Internet. And then I assume that we'll migrate to the new home. But that will be good because it will leave the D networks up there. And then there's a new home, which is a third network, which will be more wholesale and not just at the same positioning. So...

[Nick Read:]

And just to be able to -- that within our long-range plan, we do assume a sharp rundown...

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes.

[Nick Read:]

On the contract in the LTUs.

[Vittorio Colao:]

Jerry, yes, and then Dhananjay, and then Polo, and then we go up there, yes.

[Vittorio Colao:]

You keep push...

[Jerry Dellis:]

It's Jerry Dellis from Jefferies. A question on the U.K.'s role within the group. How important is the U.K. now there is still the sort of core group objectives of growing profitability, growing the dividend, improving returns? What dyssynergies would there be if the U.K. were to be carved out of Vodafone today? And how significant might, perhaps, the loss of competitive advantage in Global Enterprise be if the U.K. were not part of the group? And then the second question relates to your CapEx guidance. I suppose in November, the perceived range was in the order of 15% to 16%. You've subsequently taken the view, perhaps, to pull back on fiber or own build in Spain. And does that therefore mean that the -- sort of the new teens guidance is more like 15% as a result of this pullback in Spain? Or are there other things that have sort of come in to take its place?

[Vittorio Colao:]

Let me take the U.K. question, and Nick will give you the guidance question on CapEx. First of all, there's no plan currently to carve out the U.K., so your question is a very hypothetical one. I do believe that there is a good potential in the U.K. for improving their margins and go back to a level of profitability which is significantly higher than the current one. And we do have an opportunity to have a stronger commercial platform. Don't forget we have very high spectrum allocation, and so we can play more aggressively, which we have started doing recently in the kind of data environment. And part of the coming back in London is also linked to the fact that in London, people are starting to recognize that we have a good network with a good capacity. So there's no plan in the direction that you are hinting at. And in terms of how strategic, clearly, enterprise is important in the U.K. as we have a lot of the old Cable & Wireless customers with new customers. So it is an important component of the whole enterprise strategy. That's the simple answer.

[Nick Read:]

Just on capital guide -- capital intensity guidance, as I said in the presentation, we'll be at the upper end. So you can assume between '15 and '16, there was a bit of a pullback on Spain, but I'm not going to call it huge. And you've got other factors like success based CapEx, be given our commercial momentum, that that's gone through and a little stronger than we had originally planned. So I would call it good CapEx.

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes. Shall we go here, Polo, Dhananjay -- sorry, Polo, whichever order.

[Polo Tang:]

It's Polo Tang from UBS. I just have two questions. I think one of the main standouts from these results is actually cost savings. So you talked about entering the next phase in terms of the Fit for Growth program, but how much of an opportunity is left? And is there something that can be a tailwind for several years? The second question is really just coming back to Germany, but rather than the new frill segment, can you actually talk about what you're seeing in terms of the competitive landscape in the premium segment of German mobile? So we've obviously had stream on and in terms of that initiative from T Mobile. And can you also talk about -- maybe about da response to your Big Data bundle offers? Because from memory, I think you got a 12 gig offer at EUR 33, so what's been the reception for that?

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes. Nick and Margherita here can be asked any question on cost. I give you my high level answer. My high level answer is that, on one hand, again, my colleagues have set up a very systematic machine to go through all the cost elements. And either by sharing or by share elimination, I think they have done a good job, but the job will continue. I personally believe that there is more they have to do on the commercial cost front just as an industry, not just as ourselves. The more you think about it, if it's about SIM only, it's about essentially three brands of devices and devices which have longer lives. The whole distribution cost that the industry carry is, I think, too high. Online, hence, our digital first program, which I will not talk about today because, otherwise, my colleagues say that I'm violating. We will talk about it. But clearly, we'll have a commercial element that has to be the next wave of cost. But I would say confidence on cost. Nick?

[Nick Read:]

Yes, very good. Very good. I think what's really exciting also is digital. Just everything. My Vodafone app, yes, digital win, shared service centers, AI, all of those things give us a multiyear opportunity structurally.

[Vittorio Colao:]

I give you like a small angle. That was in Egypt, where we have our kind of machine learning unit. They showed me a human kind of interaction with our systems and the system based one. By the time the human had finished one thing, which was a change of address, the machine changed seven. So this gives you the idea of the type of opportunity that you can have if you apply better analytics and better systems to our own industry, so I think the opportunity is great. On Germany, you asked me about the premium segment. Listen, what we are seeing is Deutsche has done the stream-on offer, which you can look at it in two different ways. You can say, well, at the end of the day, it's a good thing because it will push the MVNOs into a more difficult space, and it can push the bottom of the market in a more difficult space. You can also say what was available before for 55 and 45 now is available for 55, 45 plus music, plus video. So it's not really a more for more, it's the same for more, so it's a little bit -- the way we would like to implement those things is different, but directionally, I think it's the right direction. Probably, the implementation could be a little bit more inclined to a more-for-more type of strategy. If I compare our results with Deutsche's results, there's nothing to brag about, but we did better than them in the latest round, so I think we are doing something right. Our giga offers are all inclined to be at the high end and to take usage up in Germany -- usage up to 1.2 gig finally in Germany with these offers. Germans are more cautious users of data. But the vision is the same as Italy, the same as the other places, take people up in usage and try to increase loyalty, reduce churn, improve the right relationship and, eventually, give more data in exchange for this. Dhananjay?

[Dhananjay Mirchandani:]

Vittorio, my question is related to your branding and commercial strategy in the context of Vodafone 2020. How sustainable is a -- is what, in my view, simplistically spoken, is a monobrand strategy in markets that are increasingly segmented and a competitive landscape -- take BT in the U.K., take Deutsche Telekom in Germany -- where you have, at a minimum, two, if not three, brands that are attempting to address a very different customer segment and needs.

[Vittorio Colao:]

It is not sustainable, which why we have more brands ourselves, as simple as that. If you look at Germany, we have Otelo, and we have now Vodafone Easy, which is a sub -- it's not exactly a new brand, but it's a sub thing. In Spain, we have Lowi, which is becoming now a converged brand as well. And in Morca in The Netherlands, we have always historically had them. So there's a tactical/segmented user either of product brands -- sorry, Portugal, Greece, I mean, I can mention on and on and on -- of brands which are either segmented brands or discount brands which we really use. I prefer the segmented brands because they cater to a specific segment. Youth is the classic example, Vodafone U or things like that. And I prefer to have some kind of attachment to the main brand. But if needed, we can also have them separate, like we do have in several cases.

[Dhananjay Mirchandani:]

Can I just very briefly follow up on that? So if you were to take your advertising costs over a five-year period, what percentage of that would you allocate to curating these second brands product or standard.

[Vittorio Colao:]

Not a huge amount, Dhananjay. And this is the important point to get. Vodafone is the brand that remains a brand, like Deutsche, like Telefónica MoviStar, like everything else. We'd use these second brands or sub-brands. It's, most of the times, focused on segments, and therefore, you have much more direct access, much more online, much less retail, in order to address a specific segment. The massive -- the big part of our 750 million spending still goes into Vodafone. Yes?

[Robert Grindle:]

It's Robert Grindle from Deutsche Bank in disguise.

[Vittorio Colao:]

That's really -- I mean, almost unrecognizable.

[Robert Grindle:]

I'm overly [compensated], what can I say. Yes, just a quick one on Nick's comment on the exiting of the low-margin carrier business in the U.K. Is it a case that you've chosen to exit that type of business, or was there a particular contract? Would you get back into that space if the economics improved at some point in the future? And then my second question is about handset and equipment revenues. There was an even wider gap between total group revenue growth this quarter and service revenue growth. It must be handset sales. But actually, it started to narrow a bit in Europe. I wonder, is the European handset cycle improving? And of course, it's important for future service revenue growth as well.

[Nick Read:]

So in terms of handset cycles, no, I've not seen any material shifts in handset cycles, so I have to review that gap just to see if there's anything other that's skewing it. But in terms of metrics of handsets sold, no. In terms of the first question was around?

[Robert Grindle:]

The carrier in the U.K.

[Nick Read:]

Yes, the U.K. carrier, these are ultra-low, low margins. And our strategy is being one of we build the network for ourselves, and then we can sell capacity to third parties at a reasonable margin. If they get too low, there tends to be high volatility. And we said let's take the volatility out of the system. We have high growth ourselves as a company already, yes. So we chose to exit those contracts, so it's our choice to exit those. Could there be more some more of those next year? Yes, there could always be more of those. So see it as a bit like an airline, you're constantly yield managing your infrastructure for your own business first versus others.

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes. Should we go back one and then -- yes, and then Emmet.

[Guy Peddy:]

It's Guy Peddy from Macquarie. Just want to follow up. There's been lots of chatter about margin in here, but I just wanted to bring it back down to the revenue line. if I look across Europe, there are some -- some operators are giving the messages that, perhaps, things are getting a little bit tougher; consumer pricing is getting a little bit tighter; the ability to absorb price increases is limiting; product innovation is falling, i.e. 4G has been around here for a long time, and giving more data isn't really an innovation; the fixed line side has been no major evolutions of technology, so therefore, things are getting a little bit stagnant as well. Is that something that you're picking up in your business that, perhaps, the overall industry is getting a little bit tougher now than, perhaps, it was 18, 24 months ago when 4G was newer, et cetera?

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes, let me give a quick answer. What I'm picking up is that not all of the pricing moves that I see across Europe made complete sense to me. Some of them look a little bit short term and not -- don't factor in competitors' reactions, which I will not say which ones. But clearly, we do like our model because in our model, all pricing moves are very seriously evaluated and very focused by segment, and that's why we think we are generating a good margin to this year. So do we see the same thing? Probably, yes. Do we manage it exactly in the same way? Probably not. And I hope we will be able to continue like that. Back, yes? How many do we have?

[Tim Boddy:]

One, yes. Two.

[Vittorio Colao:]

Last two.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Okay. Shall I go for the first? A couple of questions. The first one is on -- a follow-up on India. One of the reasons why that keeps going up this year was the € 3.6 billion equity injection in India. Now with the NewCo, you're going -- with the debt you confer yourself, and Idea will have a 4.5 times roughly debt to EBITDA. Because most of the towers are leased, that, that will be capitalized under full credit by the credit ratings, so it will be in excess of sixtimes. And EBITDA is going down 23% on your side, 34% on their side. They have an analogy interest rate of 10% on the debt. If I remember, that's what you said on the presentation of the deal. So do you reckon that is a sustainable balance sheet going forward? And what the risk that you have to keep injecting equity over the next one or two years? And this is actually a side. I've seen also -- I've noticed that more than 10% of your free cash flow is dividends from associates. Then you've got also this shareholder recharged another 20 million, so almost 15% of your free cash flow comes from taking cash out of these associates. What's the gearing you have in place like Australia, Ziggo and, of course, India and Indus, of course, that for one that contributed the dividends? And the second question is on the...

[Vittorio Colao:]

It's the third.

[Tim Boddy:]

It's the third on a multilevel.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

This one is very simple. It's actually a clarification of the broadband because, as you said, was many different variable but a bit convoluted. So you have 36 million NGN coverage, and a coverage on the wholesale of 83 million is the balance between the 119 million and 36 million. How many of the NGN customers connected are on the 36 million coverage? And how many on the wholesale coverage? It should be relatively simple as well.

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes. So Tim, you think the last one, please?

[Tim Boddy:]

Yes, yes.

[Nick Read:]

Okay, can I suggest, because rather than getting into filling the whole spreadsheet out, we do -- we cover a lot the more detailed points on the ones when afterwards. But what I would say in terms of India, I would say that currently, on the plans of the two combined businesses, there is no further need to put in capital to the business. So of the question then becomes how is trading currently versus our expectation, and we are smack in line with our trading and expectations. So as I say, it's really important that when Jio started charging, what happened to our commercial metrics, and basically, I'm saying they've stabilized, and therefore, we'd gone into April results are in line with our expectation, and the same for Idea. There are a number of other aspects. Obviously, we have to dispose of towers, the orphan towers that sit within our business, their business, India's stake in Indus, obviously, from a leverage perspective. But currently, we feel comfortable from a go-forward basis. I suggest, all the shareholder recharges, et cetera, that our free cash flow is driven of the fact that we have operational leverage on our core business. It's real free cash flow generation. And our capital intensity is now normalizing going forward, which I hopefully highlighted in the presentation. And in terms of on footprint, NGN, 26% penetration on average?

[Unidentified Company Representative:]

[Indiscernible] 27 million [indiscernible]

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes. Yes. Okay. One more, probably the last one, and then we can move to individual sessions with the ExCom members, which I'll introduce quickly. Emmet?

[Emmet Kelly:]

It's Emmet Kelly of Morgan Stanley. On Slide 35, you talked about some of your new digital businesses...

[Vittorio Colao:]

Yes.

[Emmet Kelly:]

In particular, IoT and data analytics. And could you talk a little bit about the data analytics side and how you might be able to monetize that? Just read some reports which show that mobile operators have, perhaps, the best data set out there in the market in terms of Big Data. You've got location based data. A lot of the data you have is real time as well. You have data on some customers going back about three or four years. You have their surf history as well. You say you're not selling to third parties in terms of data monetization. Can you just say what the revenue opportunity could be here at some stage in the future?

[Vittorio Colao:]

Thank you, Emmet, for your question because it's a very easy answer for me. First of all, thank you for saying that we have one of the most interesting data sets. I am very jealous of one company that knows what we are all thinking and another company that knows what we are all buying. Those two companies also have a very interesting data set. Yes, we do have a very interesting data set, and the answer to your question is we have not, for the time being, decided to apply to third party revenues. The reason is very simple. We had to set up a centralized data analytics unit. We have to hire people in a lot of markets who are very difficult to hire and very much in demand. And we have a huge opportunity in our own business. So the initial work of this 200 and whatever, 50, 80, 60, 300 people by the end of the year is really focused on improving our economics. And there is so much we can do in our own kind of commercial manager. But even in his management view on -- in the technology, where you put sites, how much CapEx you put, where you put it, how you put it, there is so much value that we can generate. And honestly, it's a value that comes with the 30 and plus percent EBITDA margin. While if you sell to third parties, you have completely different type. So for the time being, these units are focused internally. By the end of this year, when we have deployed everywhere and we are 100% sure that we have the cruising speed on our own exploitment, then we'll start thinking about the external work. Now let me very quickly say that we would really love to interact with you on a one to one basis. Just for your information, you have -- if you're interested in small European countries, Ahmed is the CEO of the small countries, raise your hand; Brian is the new CEO of enterprise; Margherita, Deputy CFO on cost and everything else. Matthew Kirk and, behind him, Joakim Reiter, his successor on Regulation and all the pleasures of dealing with Brussels; Vivek, CEO of emerging markets and the expert of Safaricom, Vodacom, India and everything else; Rosemary Martin, if you're interested in compliance, anti bribery and legal risks; and Johan, CTO, is very well known. Thank you very much for your questions. We really look forward to a further interaction in the next 15 or 20 minutes. Thank you.

[Nick Read:]

Thank you.