Vodafone Group Plc Extends International Presence

Vodafone (LSE: VOD) (NASDAQ: VOD.US) this morning announced the addition of Poland to existing contracts for international managed services, after revealing a new partner market agreement in the country.

The multinational telecommunications company will join with Polkomtel in a non-equity partnership, which currently serves around 14 million customers under the brand 'Plus'. As part of the agreement -- which adds Poland to a list of partner market agreements that already includes Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine -- Polkomtel will gain access to Vodafone's joint products and services for business and consumer customers.

President of Polkomtel management board Zygmunt Solorz-?ak commented: "This agreement is good news for our customers and it is another important step for Polkomtel to offer more than our competitors. I am confident that the cooperation will result in numerous interesting business projects which will offer benefits to both our existing and new customers," while Ravinder Takkar, CEO of Vodafone Partner Markets, stated: "Our agreement with Polkomtel provides an opportunity for Vodafone to strengthen further its presence in Eastern Europe."

Two years ago, Vodafone sold its 24.4% stake in Polkomtel as part of its strategy to "realise value from its non-controlled assets". When a company strips back to its fundamentals, it allows them to focus on becoming more effective and cash-generative, which is what we've seen from Vodafone and allows for that juicy yield of over 5% (minus any special dividends it may receive from its Verizon Wireless joint-venture).

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