Vodafone CEO Nick Read steps down

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- Vodafone (LON:VOD) chief executive Nick Read is to step down at the end of the year, the struggling U.K.-based telecoms company said Monday. 

The unscheduled announcement comes at a time when Vodafone's stock price is at a 20-year low, as Read's strategy has failed to turn around a long-term decline that set in back in 2015. The shares are down by nearly half since Read took over. 

That is partly due to Read's signature deal last year to spin-off Vodafone's infrastructure unit, Vantage Towers (ETR:VTWRn).  But, while Vantage has added around €4 billion to its market value in that time, Vodafone has continued to shrink.

In his four years as CEO, Read had also continued Vodafone's retreat from non-core markets and reinforced the group's European presence with the acquisition of Liberty Global's (NASDAQ:LBTYA) German operations Unitymedia. 

However, building up in Europe's largest market has so far failed to deliver the hoped-for returns, and the company was forced to acknowledge "commercial underperformance" in Germany had been a drag on its results in the first half of its fiscal 2023 year. Higher debt servicing costs were also eating into its cash flow, putting fresh pressure on its ability to sustain one of U.K. PLC's biggest dividends. As a result, the company had been forced to trim its underlying profit and cash flow guidance for the full year.

Read will be succeeded on an interim basis by chief financial officer Margherita Della Valle. 

"She will accelerate the execution of the company's strategy to improve operational performance and deliver shareholder value," the company said in a statement.