Vodafone Group net profit falls 11.5 per cent in the six months to end-September

Vodafone Group published its six-monthly financial results for the period end September 30, announcing group revenues rose by 4.1 per cent to reach £23.52 billion (US$37.7 billion), while net profit fell by 11.5 per cent to £6.64 billion.

The drop in profits was due to higher sales costs, a bigger tax bill and a sharp fall in investment income. The company paid £1.4 billion in tax on its profits.

Group EBITDA was up 2.3 per cent to £7.5 billion, slightly higher than expectations. The EBITDA margin was down 0.6 percentage points year-on-year, as expected. The fall in the margin was primarily driven by the company’s re-pricing in Spain and poor performance in Australia, partially offset by good cost control, Vodafone stated.

Mobile data revenue was up 23.8 per cent year-on-year to £3.1 billion, and now represents 14 per cent of group service revenue.

Looking ahead, the Vodafone expects adjusted operating profit for the full year to be in the range of £11.4 – £11.8 billion, the upper half of the range indicated in May 2011. The company continues to expect free cash flow to be in the range of £6.0 – £6.5 billion, excluding the £2.8 billion dividend due from Verizon Wireless in January 2012.