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Vodafone Q1 Revenue Climbs; Confirms Full-year Outlook(dpa-AFX International Compact Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) NEWBURY (dpa-AFX) - Telecom giant Vodafone Group Plc. (VOD.L, VOD) Friday reported growth in revenue for the first quarter, adding that its performance is beginning to stabilise quarter-on-quarter in several European markets. The company said trading in the first quarter was consistent with management's expectation, and confirmed its outlook for financial year 2015. Vittorio Colao, CEO, said, ''The year has started in line with our expectations. Through our commercial actions and investment, our performance is beginning to stabilise quarter-on-quarter in several of our European markets, with customer appetite for 4G services clearly growing. We also see very strong growth in demand for data in India." Group revenue for the quarter improved 6.2 percent to 10.204 billion pounds ($17.3 billion), but was down 4.4 percent on an organic basis. Group service revenue increased 6.4 percent to 9.446 billion pounds, however fell 4.2 percent organically. Revenue increased 16.5 percent in Europe to 6.851 billion pounds, and dropped by 8.9 percent organically. Service revenue dropped organically in all markets within the segment. Revenue dropped 10.2 percent in Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific or AMAP to 3.209 billion pounds, due to a 16.3 percentage point adverse impact from foreign exchange rate movements, particularly for the Indian rupee, the South African rand and the Turkish lira. Organic revenue grew 6.1 percent. On an organic basis, service revenue grew 4.7 percent in AMAP, driven by a higher customer base, increased customer voice usage, demand for data and strong commercial execution, partially offset by the impact of mobile termination rates or MTR reductions. The company also confirmed its previously issued outlook for fiscal 2015. In May, Vodafone had said that for fiscal 2015, it expects EBITDA to be in the range of 11.4 billion pounds to 11.9 billion pounds. VOD.L is up 1.6 percent in early morning trade at 201.00 pence. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX |