Vodafone revenue dips in Q1, Pearson interim profit drops
London open
The FTSE 100 was called to open five points higher at 7,494.
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First quarter group revenue at Vodafone fell 2.3% to €10.7bn (£9.59bn) due to foreign exchange rate effects, the company said on Friday as it remained confident of full year adjusted EBITDA guidance of €13.8bn - €14.2bn.
The company added that it was creating Europe's largest mobile phone tower company with its infrastructure to be legally separated into a new organisation operational by May 2020 made up of 61,700 towers in 10 markets with potential proportionate EBITDA of around €900m.
Pearson reported underlying growth across all divisions as the company said it was starting to benefit from accelerating its shift to a digital subscription-style service, a change in strategy that the educational textbook publisher revealed last week.
However, higher restructuring charges and a drop in sales following the disposal of non-core businesses led the company to report a drop in interim profit before tax to £33m from £202m in the same period last year.
Newspaper round-up
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De La Rue suffered a revolt yesterday, with almost half of voting shareholders rebelling over directors’ pay. Just over 48 per cent opposed the banknote and passport printer’s remuneration report at a heated annual meeting in Basingstoke. – The Times
US close
US stocks closed lower on Thursday as investors grew worried that the Federal Reserve may not be as dovish with its monetary policy as initially expected while also continuing to monitor trade developments and earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.47% at 27,140.98, while the S&P 500 ended 0.53% lower at 3,003.67 and the Nasdaq fell 1.00% to at 8,238.54.