The operator blamed foreign exchange movements for the decline in revenue
Vodafone Group’s revenue for the first half of its financial year (six months ending September 30) have declined 3.9 per cent from ‚¬28,151 billion (£24 billion) to ‚¬27,054 (£23 billion).
The operator revealed the results today (November 15). Europe contributed the majority with more than £15 billion – a 3.8 per cent decline from the same period a year previous. Service revenue, which includes fixed line and mobile services, contributed more than £13 billion to this year’s overall revenues so far.
The remaining revenue came from Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific (AMAP), with Vodafone also reporting operating losses of more than £3 billion.
Earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation (EBITDA) also dropped year on year to £6.9 billion. Vodafone blamed foreign exchange movements for both the decline in revenue and EBITDA. Net debt also increased from £32.1 billion to over £34 billion year on year.
Despite the declines, Vodafone claims to have added more than 675,000 broadband subscribers in the period – making it ‘the fastest growing broadband provider across Europe’ with a presence in over 82 million households.
The operator’s total 4G base across Europe rose by 15 million to 39.3 million, whilst broadband connections grew by half a million to 12.9 million. It’s total mobile base globally for the quarter ending September stood at more than 464,000 with over 17,000 UK.
Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao said: “We have further improved our performance during the first half of the financial year with Europe modestly ahead of our expectations and good execution in AMAP. Our substantial network investments and ‘more-for-more’ propositions have allowed us to capture opportunities from strong data demand, supporting European mobile contract ARPU and continued growth in emerging markets.
“As Europe’s fastest-growing broadband operator, we are driving rapid uptake of our consumer fixed and TV services while our wholly converged Enterprise business continues to outperform its peers. We are now translating faster revenue growth into margin expansion, supported by our focus on cost efficiency.
“Overall, we expect to sustain our underlying performance in the second half of the year and remain on track to meet our full-year objectives despite macroeconomic uncertainties. This performance allows for improved returns to our shareholders, as reflected by the growth in the interim dividend.”
