News

Vodafone feeling a little flat

MSPs
UK mobile operator Vodafone has reported flat profits after the economic turmoil in Europe over the last year. The report detailing the Vodafone financials for the year ending 31 March 2012 was released today and stated that results were due to “the tough macroeconomic and regulatory environment in much of Europe has made revenue growth in that region increasingly challenging.”

•The company have written down the value of its assets in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece by £4bn.

•Group revenue up 1.2% to £46.4 billion; full year organic service revenue growth +1.5%*; Q4 +2.3%

•Final dividend per share of 6.47 pence, giving total dividends per share for the year of 13.52 pence (including 4.0 pence special dividend), up +51.9%

•Smartphone penetration in Europe 26.9%, +8.3 percentage points year-on-year; 43.2% of consumer contract revenue in our major European markets from integrated tariffs in Q4.

Vittorio Colao, Group Chief Executive, commented “Our focus on the key growth areas of data, emerging markets and enterprise is positioning us well in a difficult macroeconomic environment. Our commercial performance and our ability to leverage scale continue to be strong, enabling us to gain or hold market share in most of our key markets, and reduce the rate of margin decline. Our robust cash generation and the dividend received from Verizon Wireless have enabled us to translate this operational success into good returns for shareholders.