Vittorio Colao, Vodafone’s new European head, will today set out his plans for the group’s increasingly pressurised European operations.

In his first presentation to investors since taking up the post, Mr Colao will outline the group’s strategy for overcoming challenges in Vodafone’s core UK and German markets.

He is expected to reiterate plans for cost cutting through measures such as outsourcing. He is also expected to detail efforts to push more fixed-line calls over to mobiles through converged products such as its Zuhause product.

Like its peers in Western Europe, Vodafone is facing a raft of challenges including slowing growth, increased regulation such as a clampdown on mobile roaming charges and fierce pricing competition.

Citigroup wrote in a recent note that expectations for the investor day are “sober”. Key issues, it said, included the group’s ability to sustain margins in the UK.

Investors are also expected to seek reassurance that the group can offset futher expected drops in call prices in Germany Last year investor discontent over the group’s flagging share price and its ability to deal with challenges facing it triggered one of the most difficult periods in Vodafone’s history. Investors holding 15 per cent of Vodafone shares refused to back the reelection of its head, Arun Sarin at the group’s annual meeting.

Under the chairmanship of Sir John Bond, the banking veteran, investor sentiment has moved behind the group and it secured strong backing for its recent move to take control of the Indian giant Hutchison Essar.

Today’s investor day — at which Nick Read, the head of Vodafone UK, will also present, will throw the focus back on to its core European markets.

Mr Colao took over the post of head of Europe and deputy chairman of Vodafone after the sudden resignation from the group of Bill Morrow. Mr Morrow, who filled a series of vital trouble-shooting roles at Vodafone, including heading its failing Japanese business, left for family reasons.

Big shot: Vittorio Colao

Supporters of Vittorio Colao, the new head of Vodafone’s European operations, once tipped him as a future head of the mobile titan. As his first presentation to investors today will indicate, promotion is the least of his concerns.

Pricing pressure, slowing growth and a growing mound of regulation are just a few of the issues that Mr Colao must deal with. And investors, who held his predecessor in the role, Bill Morrow, in high regard, will be judging his performance closely.

Mr Colao, 44, worked at Vodafone between 2000 and 2004, running the company's Southern European business.

A former McKinsey consultant, he was regarded within Vodafone as an energetic and enthusiastic leader, who helped to make the company's Italian operation the most dynamic in the group. He was identified as a future chief executive by Lord MacLaurin of Knebworth, the former head of Vodafone.

However, Mr Colao quit Vodafone in 2004 to become chief executive of RCS Mediagroup, Italy’s biggest newspaper group. Promoters said that his departure was in part down to his failure to secure the top job.

He resigned from RCS last year after failing to win shareholder backing to cut costs by taking on the print unions.

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