Vodafone, the UK telecoms group under pressure from an activist investor, has strengthened its board with two appointments including the former chief executive of Arm.
Simon Segars, who stepped down as head of the UK-based chip business three months ago and Delphine Cunci, an industry heavyweight in France, will join Vodafone’s board as non-executives after the annual meeting on July 26.
Europe’s largest activist fund Cevian Capital has been pushing the mobile group to refresh its management, which it believes has insufficient experience. The investor has an undisclosed stake in Vodafone and is keen for a major overhaul, including shedding poor performing businesses and consolidating in key markets as well as beefing up the board.
Vodafone’s share price, which was down 2 per cent in London trading on Friday, has shed nearly 15 per cent over the past 12 months and about half its value since a high in June 2015. Still, it has recovered nearly 40 per cent from August 2020, when it was wallowing at the lowest level since 2002.
In February, Vodafone rejected an €11bn bid for its Italian business from French rival Iliad, owned by Xavier Niel.
Vodafone chair Jean-François van Boxmeer said Segars and Cunci were “well respected leaders who bring extensive experience and track records of value creation across the telecoms, technology and media sectors”.
Segars stepped down from Arm after a nine-year stint in February, when SoftBank’s $66bn sale of the UK-based chip business to Nvidia collapsed on regulatory concerns. The deal’s failure brought an immediate management shake-up and Segars was replaced by Rene Haas, head of the company’s intellectual property unit.
“He successfully led [Arm] since 2013 and generated significant value for investors during his tenure,” Vodafone’s statement said on Friday. Segars joined Arm in 1991 as an engineer and before that was at Standard Telephones and Cables, a former FTSE 100 technology company.
Cunci has been president of France Télévisions, the national public television broadcaster, since 2015. Before that she spent 26 years at Orange, becoming deputy chief executive in 2010 to lead a turnround of the group’s French unit.