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Board must go at HOME REIT: Activist CHARLIE CONCHIE
READING THE SIGNALS
VODAFONE BOSS NICK READ TO ‘STEP AWAY’ AFTER TENURE MARKED BY ACTIVIST PRESSURE AND SHARE PRICE DISAPPOINTMENT LEAH MONTEBELLO VODAFONE chief exec Nick Read will step away from the telecoms giant at the end of the year, the firm announced yesterday, bringing to an end a troubled four-year tenure. The firm’s share price has almost halved during Read’s time at the top – despite the FTSE 100 remaining broadly flat over the same period – with activist investors including European heavyweight Cevian piling on the pressure.
Yesterday Read said he “agreed with the board that now is the right moment to hand over to a new leader”. Vodafone was forced to cut full-year cash-flow and earnings guidance in an update last month, with the firm hit by energy costs and a poor sales performance in European markets, including Germany. That came alongside a new pledge to make cost savings worth as much as a billion euros. Chief financial officer Margherita Della
Valle will step in on an interim basis, with a search for a permanent successor now underway. Analysts said the move came as little surprise. Kester Mann, a telecoms expert at CCS Insight, said investors were looking for more bang for their buck. And Karen Egan, head of mobile at Enders Analysis, said the firm would need to look outside for the next boss in order to “bring
a fresh approach [and] a complete rethink.” Read is unlikely to be able to seal a merger deal for the firm’s UK mobile arm with rival Three by the time he exits, a key part of his recent merger and acquisition-focused strategy to reassert the firm’s pricing power in an ever more competitive marketplace.
SOCIAL housing investor Home REIT faced calls for its board to be sacked yesterday for “significantly” inflating the value of its property portfolio, in the latest of a string of attacks on the firm in the past two weeks. In a letter to senior independent director Simon Moore, activist investor The Boatman Capital Research levelled a series of accusations at Home REIT, including that it had “been over-optimistic in its assumptions” on property value and its portfolio could in fact be “39-51 per cent lower” than it claims. The activist said the inflated valuations and a slew of accounting issues made the positions of the chair and the audit chair “untenable”, and it was now poised to agitate for further change if its demands were not met. “We may… consider engaging with other likeminded investors to achieve change if it is not otherwise forthcoming,” the letter said. The barrage follows a series of accusations from shortseller Viceroy Research over the past two weeks, in which it slammed the quality of tenants in Home REIT’s property portfolio and caused its share price to plummet by a third. £ CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Bolt told to match Uber worker conditions – or face being driven out of London ILARIA GRASSO MACOLA A LEADING City Hall politician yesterday warned ride-sharing app Bolt it could be barred from operating in the capital unless it improved its drivers’ pay and conditions. Labour transport lead Elly Baker tweeted that Bolt should give its
workers “the rights they deserve”, otherwise it would face “serious questions over its licence to operate in London”. “We must have a level-playing field on private hire licensing in London,” she added.
Bolt is currently facing two class action lawsuits as drivers have called on the ride-hailing company to give them employee status – including access to paid holiday and pensions,
similar to those enjoyed by Uber drivers after a lengthy series of legal cases and union negotiations. Law firm Leigh Day filed a claim in early October on behalf of more than 1,600 workers, while GMB is currently representing six people. Baker said Bolt should adopt the standards implemented by rivals. Baker’s words were echoed by a
spokesperson for the mayor, who said Sadiq Khan has urged “other employers in the gig economy to follow suit in order to help improve employment standards across London and the UK”. A Bolt spokesperson told City A.M. that its operating model gives drivers “higher earnings per trip and more flexibility”.
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