Vodacom highlights toughening domestic conditions in its FY results to end-March

Vodacom reported that total revenue rose by 2.1 per cent to ZAR77.3 billion (US$6.5 billion) for the twelve months to March 31, 2015, while service revenue during the period only grew by 0.2 per cent to ZAR62.2 billion.

Group net profit fell by 8.5 per cent to ZAR12.5 billion.

The group’s total customer base grew by 7.2 per cent to 61.6 million over the course of the year.

In its home market of South Africa, Vodacom reported an 18 per cent reduction in the blended average effective price per minute for voice calls, and a 24 per cent cut in the average effective price per MB of data.

The operator also felt the effects of a 50 per cent reduction in mobile termination rates (MTR) in South Africa effective April 2014. The combination of pricing pressure and MTR cuts meant a 2.7 per cent fall in group service revenue in this market to ZAR47.032 billion.

Vodacom reported that service revenue from its other African markets combined – Tanzania, Lesotho, DRC, and Mozambique – rose by 10 per cent to ZAR15.3 billion.

The overall customer base in the four markets grew by 13.7 per cent over the year to 29.5 million, representing 48 per cent of Vodacom Group’s entire customer base.

Vodacom’s data revenue in its other African markets also grew 32.9 per cent as the number of active customers in this segment grew to 9.9 million.

However international EBITDA declined 3.6 per cent to ZAR4.11 billion, while the company’s number of mobile money M-Pesa customers grew by 34.2 per cent during the period to reach eight million in its Africa markets.