Vodafone Spain’s Coimbra to step down after eight years

António Coimbra, Vodafone’s longest-serving European OpCo boss, is to step down from his role as Chief Executive of key problem-business Vodafone Spain in the next few weeks.

Coimbra will be replaced by Vodafone Turkey CEO Colman Deegan on 1 November, both at the helm of Vodafone Spain and on the Group’s Executive Committee, according to a statement by the operator.

• A round of musical chairs, instigated by the Spanish switch, will see Deegan succeeded in Turkey by Alexandre Froment-Curtil, currently CEO of Vodafone Egypt (which Vodafone is in the process of exiting). Mohamed Abdallah, Director of Vodafone Egypt’s Consumer Business Unit, has been promoted to CEO at the OpCo.

Once he has done the handover, Coimbra will move upstairs to become Non-Executive Chairman of Vodafone Spain — a stock, continuity-focused tactic employed by Vodafone when switching out long-time figureheads at European OpCos, as per Francisco Román’s exit from the Spanish business in 2011 (Vodafonewatch, #88).

Vodafone’s statement strongly indicated the switch was instigated by Group leadership, containing no mention of any “mutual” or “personal” basis for the decision, but a comment by Group CEO Nick Read that he was “also pleased that he [Coimbra] will continue as Non-Executive Chairman of Vodafone Spain”.

Spain pain again

Coimbra took over in Spain back in 2012, coming in for current Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub amid a turbulent period for the business, as it — and the rest of Vodafone’s mature market operations — rushed to shore up multi-play weaknesses (Vodafonewatch, #90).

Before that, he was a long-time executive at Vodafone Portugal, including a three year-spell as CEO — although punctuated by a short sojourn as Chief Marketing Officer at Vodafone Japan before its sale to SoftBank Corp.

His exit comes with VfS still suffering competitively — despite the 2014 buyout of ONO, various other moves to expand wireline resource access, and a 2018 strategic pivot aimed at improving commercial performance and efficiency (Vodafonewatch, #171 and passim).

Its last quarter, the COVID-19-affected three months to 30 June 2020, saw service revenue fall 6.9% at the OpCo, continuing a long run of sales erosion. Vodafone Spain also remains the subject of persistent rumours of some form of tie-up with challenger Grupo MÁSMÓVIL.