Vodafone Group revenue down 4.4% in Q2

Vodafone Group announced a weak organic Q1 performance in its core European markets, although it claimed there is “evidence of commercial improvement” in Germany, Italy and the UK.

On an organic basis, group revenue fell by 4.4 per cent to GBP10.2 billion (US$17.31 billion), with service revenue falling by 4.2 per cent to GBP9.45 billion.

On a reported basis, revenue increased by 6.2 per cent, with service revenue up 6.4 per cent.

For its European arm, organic service revenue fell by 7.9 per cent to GBP6.45 billion. Contrastingly, its Africa, Middle East and Asia–Pacific (AMAP) business saw growth of 4.7 per cent to GBP2.89 billion.

For the AMAP region, Vodafone said that the rate of growth had slowed in India, following earlier price increases. But data revenue growth has picked-up, as 3G take up continued and the operator made further investments in its 3G network rollout.

Vodacom service revenue was flat, following a 50 per cent mobile termination rate cut in South Africa in April. Its international operations continued to grow off the back of customer growth, higher voice usage, and data take-up, although it also noted “intense price competition”.

Enterprise service revenue decreased, with Vodafone noting “some ongoing competitive pressure in our traditional national enterprise business”. It said that it saw strong growth in strategic areas, with Global Enterprise revenue increasing due to new account wins and extensions, and M2M revenue up 30.7 per cent, driven by increased innovation and a widening range of vertical markets”.

Capital expenditure during the period was GBP1.87 billion, up 83.4 per cent.