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MARKET COMMENT
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This morning's news that Chris Gent is to retire from Vodafone (LSE: VOD)(NYSE: VOD) next July has been greeted with mixed feelings by investors. Vodafone shares dipped initially but, at the time of writing, had recovered their losses. Gent is still somewhat of a spring chicken as far as FTSE boardrooms are concerned. He's a mere 54 years of age. He was appointed managing director of Vodafone's UK operations back in 1985, when the first mobile call was made in this country. Back then, the company was a division of Racal. It didn't become a separately listed company until November 1988 when it floated at the equivalent of 11p. Gent became chief executive at the beginning of 1997. Since Gent took over the helm, global customer numbers have grown from less than 5m to107.5m. The group's market value has gone from £7.5b to £77b, although most of this has been due to acquisitions. At the start of 1997 the share price was 49p. It's a little over double that today. Vodafone has named Arun Sarin as Gent's successor. Just as with Ben Verwaayen at BT Group (LSE: BT.A)(NYSE: BTY) and even, to some extent, Luc Vandevelde at Marks & Spencer (LSE: MKS), many investors are saying "er, who?" Sarin does have plenty of Vodafone experience though. He's currently a non-executive director of Vodafone and was the CEO of AirTouch, and apparently played a key role when Vodafone acquired it back in 1999. Investors are also asking "why now?" Vodafone's recent results were very impressive so it's natural to wonder if there could be nasties lurking. The company is moving into the next stage of its corporate life. It's had its fill of big acquisitions and now it needs more of a day-to-day manager as the focus shifts to maximising revenues from existing customers whilst continually squeezing costs. Whether its customers will take up new data services in sufficient volumes is still the great unknown. Gent has certainly proved his worth as an astute deal maker and is one of very few technology-related CEOs from pre-bubble days who still has his reputation (and job!) largely intact. In fact, you could draw parallels with Stelios's recent departure from easyJet (LSE: EZJ). Of course, Gent's holding in Vodafone is miniscule in comparison and therefore far less disconcerting for existing investors. Perhaps he has taken the well-worn investment saying to heart, namely 'always leave something for the next guy'.