Vodafone's not so great expectations

NEWS Deutsche Bank forecast that Vodafone's earnings per share could be up to 18 per cent lower than expected and cut its share price target from 345p to 296p. The broker also downgraded revenue and earnings forecasts for Vodafone's German subsidiary, D2, by 14 per cent and 15 per cent for the year to March 2002. Part of the new forecast is due to Vodafone's plans to change its accounting policies and ignore any customers who have not used their mobile phones for three months. Vodafone said this will reduce subscriber figures by nine per cent but many industry experts believe the figure is closer to 25 per cent.