D-Day arrives for Telefónica
Telefónica will unveil its strategic plan for the next three years on Wednesday, 8 November, as part of Capital Markets Day, while it is still waiting to see whether STC Group will take a 9.9% stake in its capital and whether the State Industrial Ownership Corporation (SEPI) will decide to buy shares.
All this in a market like the Spanish one, with a plurality of players and downward price competition, in which the main operators are involved in merger and acquisition operations.
Orange, the second operator in the Spanish market, is merging with MásMóvil, the fourth, while Vodafone, the third, has just been acquired by Zegona. Telefónica is the first.
Telefónica’s investor day has not been held since 2012.
In this context, Telefónica will present its strategic plan for 2023-2026 on the 8th at the “Capital Markets Day”, a meeting with investors that it has not organised since 2012.
This event is organised on a day on which the operator will present its results for the first nine months of the year, which it is expected to announce mid-morning, unlike its usual practice of presenting them before the start of the stock market session, at around half past seven in the morning, according to sources at the operator, which informed EFE.
On this occasion, and in the absence of a specific time, the results will be posted on the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) at around midday. It will then reveal its strategy to the investors attending the event.
This new strategic plan will replace the one it approved in 2019, which had the objective of increasing its stock market value after a ‘black’ August in which the share price fell to around 6 euros, the lowest value in 22 years. That objective was not achieved. Now, its shares are around 3.7 euros.
At that time, a plan was drawn up focusing on five areas: prioritising the operator’s activity in its main markets (Spain, United Kingdom, Germany and Brazil), and the creation of a business unit for its centres in Latin America.
In addition, it was agreed to create Telefónica Tech and Telefónica Infra, as well as to redefine the company’s Corporate Centre.
A plan with customers at the ‘centre’ of the strategy
Some details of the new strategic plan are known, such as that it will be based on three main pillars: growth, profitability and sustainability, and that it will place customers at the centre, through technology and automation.
Este nuevo plan estratégico se sustentará en el crecimiento del flujo de caja libre registrado por el operador a raíz del aumento de ingresos experimentado desde el segundo trimestre de 2021, según dijo el presidente de Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, el pasado julio en la conferencia con analistas durante la presentación de resultados del primer semestre.
El operador obtuvo en el primer semestre del año 1.296 millones de euros de Flujo de Caja Libre – el dinero que genera con su actividad y con el que se paga dividendo y deuda- y confía en cerrar el año con unos 4.000 millones aproximadamente, ha anunciado.
Telefónica ganó en el primer semestre del año 760 millones de euros, un 25,9 % menos que en 2022, pese a haber ingresado un 3,7 % más y como consecuencia de las plusvalías del año pasado.
La multinacional española aumentó sus ingresos en todos sus mercados, salvo en su unidad de Hispanoamérica, donde los redujo un 0,8 %, hasta los 4.489 millones de euros.
De manera paralela a la que Telefónica desvelará su plan estratégico se está a la espera de si entra STC Group como principal accionista del operador, y de si finalmente la SEPI decide comprar acciones.
La entrada de la SEPI en Telefónica supondría el retorno de capital estatal en el operador. Telefónica, que en el pasado fue monopolio en España, dejó de tener capital público en 1997.
