Vodafone PLC, a FTSE-100 company, that makes up 5% of the FTSE-100, valued at £106 Billion, has equity interests in 31 countries worldwide.

[http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=10097]

Yesterday, Wed 5th Feb, Vodafone PLC, paid a dividend to its shareholders.

It was a payment of 3.53p per share, it’s Feb 2014 interim payment

Vodafone’s issued share capital consists of 52,821,751,216 ordinary shares of which 4,354,978,270 ordinary shares are held in Treasury.

Therefore, the total number of voting rights in Vodafone is 48,466,772,946
So Vodafone paid £0.0353 on each of the 48,466,772,946 shares.

That means Vodafone paid £0.0353 x 48,466,772,946  =£1,710,877,085 to its investors.

That is £1.7 Billion paid to its shareholders on Wed 5th Feb 2014. Not bad considering Vodafone (Voice & Data Phone) was an newly created 1980’s company that was a subsidary of Racal Electronics, known then as Racal-Vodafone, and was then spun out in the early 1990’s under the leadership of the late Ernie Harrison. Only one of two telecoms companies that are members of the FTSE-100 (the other being BT Group PLC).