Vodafone Group (LON:VOD) , the mobile phone giant, announced that revenue had increased by 8.4% to £44.5bn in the year to end-March. Group service revenue increased by 8.9% to £41.7bn.  Q4 organic service revenue fell 0.2%, a second successive quarterly improvement. Europe service revenue declined 3.5% to £28.3bn. In Q4 service revenue declined 1.7%, an improvement on Q3.

Strong revenue growth continued in data and fixed broadband. In mobile, improvements were driven by data, enterprise and roaming, with voice usage and price trends broadly similar to the previous quarter. Africa and Central Europe service revenue declined 1.2% to £7.4bn. In Q4 service revenue increased by 2.4%, a 2.9 percentage point improvement on Q3, driven by strong revenue growth in Turkey (+31.3%) and continued growth at Vodacom (+4.6%). Asia Pacific and Middle East service revenue increased by 9.8% to £6.1bn. In Q4 service revenue increased by 5%, lower than the previous quarter due to the start-up of Indus Towers in Q1 2009. India again generated quarter on quarter revenue growth. Its customer base now exceeds 100 million.Group EBITDA was £14.7bn, up 1.7%. The EBITDA margin declined in line with expectations.

Verizon Wireless posted another set of strong results for the financial year with service revenue growth of 6.3%.
Adjusted operating profit was £11.9bn using guidance assumptions, exceeding revised guidance. On a reported basis adjusted operating profit was £11.5bn.

Adjusted earnings per share was 16.11p with growth impacted by the inclusion of a tax benefit and associated interest credit in the prior year. Excluding this benefit adjusted earnings per share increased by 6.6%.

Free cash flow grew 26.5% to £7.2bn, exceeding guidance and reflecting the benefits of a working capital improvement programme. Capital investment was maintained at prior year levels. The proportionate mobile customer base was 341 million with 8.5 million net additions during Q4. A final dividend per share of 5.65p, up 9%, will be paid, making total dividends 8.31p per share, up 7%.

Vittorio Colao, CEO, commented: "Vodafone's financial results exceeded our upgraded guidance on all measures. Revenue trends have improved again in Q4 driven by growth in mobile data and fixed broadband. Cost reduction targets were delivered ahead of schedule enabling commercial reinvestment to improve market share and further strengthen our technology platforms. Free cash flow of £7.2bn and confidence in Vodafone's prospects have enabled us to increase dividends by 7%…

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