Vimpelcom (VIP, quote) is a stock I have long felt undervalued and at a minimum a cashflow machine, where as long as the core shareholders could play nice in the sandbox, I as an investor would be along for the ride as they sought to pay out as much cashflow as possible.
Suddenly, I’m not so sure and after years of a bumpy ride have to reconsider my basic investment rationale.
Today, VIP cut dividends from .80c/share to .035c/share as they talk about cutting debt and improving their balance sheet.
This comes after years of core shareholders, Alfa Group and Norway’s Telenor (TELNY, quote), battling it out in the boardroom with both very focused on dividends to fund other projects.
Telenor’s shareholders count on the Vimpelcom dividend to make FCF a big part of that story.
What gives? The company is saying at their investor day they need to catch up 4G capex in Russia and Italy, and forecasts are that Capex sales will go from around 15% to over 20%.
Hard to see stock with a catalyst in near term and will be sold on dividend news.
Stay tuned for more.