cellular-news [ ] 2010-07-23 ShareThis

Vodafone Revenues Rise - Plans Strategy Review

Vodafone has reported revenues increased by 4.8% to £11.3 billion (US$17.2 billion) and Group service revenue increased by 4.9% to £10.6 billion (US$16.2 billion). On an organic basis, service revenue increased by 1.1% - an improvement of 1.7 percentage points on the previous quarter - as each of the regions delivered improved service revenue trends.. The company doesn't issue a profit figure for the quarter. The company also confirmed that it will announce a shakeup of the company later this year to "accelerate our strategy to drive shareholder value and take advantage of the widespread adoption of data" Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive, commented: "These are the first quarterly results to show service revenue growth since the global recession impacted. We have achieved these results through our continuing commercial approach in key European markets, focusing especially on data, and from strong growth in emerging markets, with India now cash positive at an operating level and our highest ever quarterly revenue in Turkey. The financial outlook for the current year is confirmed." In Europe service revenue fell by 1.7%, a 0.7 percentage point improvement on the previous quarter. The northern European businesses experienced an improvement in economic conditions, whilst the southern European businesses continued to experience a weaker economic environment and poor consumer sentiment. In Africa and Central Europe service revenue grew 3.7%, a 1.3 percentage point improvement on the previous quarter, driven by strong performance in Turkey. In South Africa growth was at a similar level to the previous quarter. In central European markets operational trends improved despite fragile economic environments and significant reductions in local mobile termination rates. In Asia Pacific and Middle East service revenue increased by 10.5%, a 5.5 percentage point improvement on the previous quarter. The improvement was driven by continued strong customer growth and better usage trends in India where there have been no recent significant price reductions by market leaders. Outlook In the first quarter trading was consistent with management's expectations underlying the outlook statement for the current financial year. The EBITDA margin decline was also in line with management's expectations and the group continues to expect a full year EBITDA margin decline at a substantially lower rate than that experienced in the 2010 financial year, with the majority of the improvement occurring in the second half of the year.