Three things you need to know in the financial markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross.
Vodafone
There’s a Q3 trading update out from Vodafone LON:VOD this morning, where the company is able to advise the market of a return to some very modest revenue growth of 0.4%, against the -0.4% seen in the previous quarter. Vodafone’s largest market – Germany – is performing well and the IPO of its tower network also remains on track for the coming months. Full year guidance has been reaffirmed and by all accounts the company has, through its role as a communications provider, benefitted from the worldwide lockdowns to contain COVID-19 with domestic demand for connectivity outweighing losses from aspects such as falling income from ‘roaming’ services. As Dan Thomas at Third Bridge notes, “All European carriers will have lost out on high margin roaming business this year. Business travellers account for the majority of roaming revenues. Those with established broadband offers have seen some benefit through customers upgrading speeds to accommodate working from home.”
STV Group
STV [KON:STVG] has issued an update this morning, noting it has seen a record start to the year with a 115% uptick in demand for its streaming services. The STV player has now been added to Sky Q, having already been included on Freeview and Virgin Media Player. Perhaps the most critical points here however are the facts that media distributors are increasingly making content exclusively for streaming services and that consumers are now adopting on-demand programming at scale. Much has been said about how COVID changed the way we shop but is entertainment going to see an equally fundamental change?
Guild Esports
Bit of a left field one here, but it will be interesting to see how the market digests this nugget of news. Guild Esports LON:GILD, the digital sports team co-founded by David Beckham, has announced that they have signed the EU’s number 1 Fortnite player to their team. The addition of the 16 year old (who has so far won over $200k in prize money) elevates Guild’s team to the top spot in the region. Teenagers will be inspired, parents will be aghast. Let’s see what investors make of it….
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