Indian spectrum auction a good result for Vodafone, says JP Morgan

27th Mar 2015 11:31

JP Morgan Cazenove has maintained an 'overweight' stance on Vodafone after results from an Indian spectrum auction this week came in better than many had expected."After 19 days, and 115 rounds of bidding, the Indian spectrum auction has concluded. Interestingly the results seem much more favourable than feared," the US bank said.Vodafone retained the majority of its key 900MHz spectrum and only lost a nominal 2.2MHz of its 1GHz-plus spectrum. It also secured 30MHz of additional 2.1GHz spectrum to increase its 3G coverage from nine to 16 circles, which represents 88% of its service revenue footprint, the bank highlighted.Vodafone's total spend in the auction came to $4.2bn, in line with JP Morgan's estimate but much lower than the $5.5bn Bloomberg had feared."With the auction overhang removed, and FX pressures easing, we believe it is time to focus back onto the re-rating potential offered by Vodafone's improving European outlook, and our anticipated return to revenue growth" JP Morgan said.Vodafone was trading 1% higher at 226.2p by 11:30.