Vodafone gets a boost ...from rugby tackles
THE lockdown boom in online shopping has piqued investor interest in the drab world of packaging.
Cardboard box maker DS Smith, which counts Amazon as a customer, will this week post its annual results.
At £4.21, the stock is at its highest for nearly three years as lockdowns continue to buoy sentiment around the firm. Profit is expected to be £237 million for the year to April 30, 2021, against £368 million the year before.
Analysts hope it will top £350 million in the current financial year.
They will also be keen to hear whether inflation is pushing up the cost of materials, as well as the outlook for the dividend.
A payout of 12.5p per share is expected, and hopes are that the dividend could hit 15p for the current year.
PANDEMIC travel bans and a drop in smartphone sales have been hurting Vodafone’s shares, but an intriguing new tie-up offers a glimpse of potential future revenues.
The telecoms giant will tomorrow be launching Player. Connect, a technology platform for sports coaches and medical staff.
The software will be used by coaches on the British and Irish Lions rugby tour of South Africa next month. It will collate data on everything from players’ injuries and heart rates to sleep patterns and diets. It even displays the impact of tackles using connected mouthguards.
The link-up comes after the 2019 acquisition of IoT.nxt, a specialist in the Internet of Things – the network of connected devices. Vodafone says that market could be worth £3 billion by 2024.
Business director Anne Sheehan says: ‘We are also using this technology in other i ndustries, from studying remote sensors in the water industry to monitoring carbon generation in forests.’
ROLLS- ROYCE chief executive Warren East has been trying to underscore the company’s longt erm prospects as t he crisis in aviation dents the engine maker.
It hopes to hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and ramp up investment in green fuel and technology. Rolls- Royce spent £ 1.4 billion on research and development in 2019. While that figure took a Covid crunch down to £1.25 billion last year, East t ells me t here will be ‘upward movement’ back to previous levels as aviation recovers.
The plan is to ramp up spending on green initiatives from 50 per cent of the R&D budget now to 75 per cent by 2025.
Rolls- Royce will hope investors are willing to strap in for the long haul.