"We decided to leave Spain because it is a very challenging market and it is really important that at Vodafone we focus our time, attention and resources on markets where we have good opportunities to grow, with sustainable structures and where we have sufficient scale to make profits."
Thus, Margherita della Valle, CEO of the Vodafone group, has openly acknowledged the British teleoperator's reasons for leaving Spain during the conference with analysts she held this Tuesday for the presentation of the group's results.
Results that confirm that Vodafone's business in Spain continues to be weak, with a drop in turnover of 1.8% in the last semester, although it recovered slightly during the last three months of the company's fiscal year, a period in which The fall eased to 1.3%.
But from London they do not see good prospects for the business and have preferred to leave the cleaning and restructuring work to the new owner, the Zegona investment fund. "It is a market that will require more than one turn in terms of consolidation and we want to focus on the markets where we can grow better (...) Zegona's mission will be to produce as much value as they can," he added.
In this sense, the British fund has already presented its strategy for Vodafone Spain and in it it does not hide that the possibility of layoffs in the operator and also the closure of stores with "poor performance", according to a document sent to the Stock Exchange London.
Regarding possible layoffs, the company has raised the possibility of applying a "specific program" to reduce staff so that personnel costs drop from the 7.1% of Vodafone's business income in Spain that they currently represent.
In relation to the closure of stores, Zegona has pointed out that the cost of attracting customers at Vodafone was around 339 euros in the previous fiscal year, so it considers that to reduce that figure there are various alternatives, which go through the closure of physical points of sale with "low performance" and the promotion of digital channels for relationships with users.
Another of the measures contemplated in Zegona's plan is the renegotiation of wholesale fixed network contracts with Telefónica, Orange and MásMóvil.
The fund strategy led by Eamonn O'Hare also refers to "bad debts", for which it is studying outsourcing an agency specialized in this and "implementing greater controls" to reduce the percentage of this type of debt to 0.89 % of turnover.
Another element of the roadmap to reduce costs is the renegotiation of television content agreements and using the Lowi brand to expand the subscriber base and lower the cost of television content from 9.6 euros per customer.
In addition, it proposes reducing annual spending on information technologies, which is currently 102 million euros annually, the document adds.
Other elements that the British fund has identified to rationalize costs in Vodafone Spain have to do with the cancellation of "unproductive technological projects" and the replacement of some "high-cost services" that the company receives.
