Vodafone Group exited the year with accelerating service revenue growth across the business

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Vodafone Group Plc (LON:VOD) has announced its FY21 preliminary results.

Resilient performance in FY21 and announcing next phase in our strategy to drive returns through growth

· Stable service revenue in FY21, returning to growth in the second half

· Strong delivery of strategic priorities over the last three years to reshape Vodafone

· Next strategic phase to become a new generation connectivity & digital services provider in Europe and Africa

· Medium-term financial ambition to drive returns through growth acceleration

Financial results (unaudited)	Page	FY21 €m	FY20 €m	Change¹ %
Group revenue	14	43,809	44,974	(2.6)
Group service revenue	14	37,141	37,871	(0.1)*

Operating profit	14	5,097	4,099	+24.3
Adjusted EBITDA²	14	14,386	14,881	(1.2)*
Profit / (loss) for the financial year	14	536	(455)

Basic earnings/(loss) per share	26	0.38c	(3.13)c
Adjusted basic earnings per share²	26	8.08c	5.60c

Total dividends per share	36	9.00c	9.00c

Cash inflow from operating activities	26	17,215	17,379	(0.9)
Free cash flow (pre spectrum, restructuring and integration costs)²	27	5,019	5,700	(11.9)
Free cash flow²	27	3,110	4,949

Net debt^2,3	28	(40,543)	(42,047)	+3.6

1. Amounts marked with an “*” represent organic growth. See page 2 for more information.

2. Non-GAAP measure. See page 40 for more information.

3. FY20 Net debt has been aligned to the FY21 presentation. See page 28 for more information.

· Group revenue declined by 2.6% to €43.8 billion, as good underlying momentum and the benefit from the acquisition of Liberty Global’s assets was offset by the effects of COVID-19 on roaming and visitor revenue, as well as foreign exchange movements

· Adjusted EBITDA declined by 1.2%* to €14.4 billion as our leading digital and efficiency programmes resulted in a further €0.5 billion net reduction in European operating expenditure, largely mitigating COVID impacts

· Free cash flow (pre spectrum, restructuring and integration costs) of €5.0 billion, in line with expectations

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· Total dividends per share are 9.0 eurocents, including a final dividend per share of 4.5 eurocents

Nick Read, Group Chief Executive, commented:
“I am pleased that we achieved full year results in line with our guidance and we exited the year with accelerating service revenue growth across the business, with a particularly good performance in our largest market, Germany.
We have delivered on the first phase of our strategy to reshape Vodafone as a stronger connectivity provider – including the simplification of the group to Europe and Africa, the successful IPO of Vantage Towers (€13.2 billion market capitalisation), the fast roll out of our next generation mobile and fixed networks, share gain in broadband subscriptions and continued reduction in customer churn. Our digital transformation initiatives have generated savings of €0.5 billion over the year and the integration of the assets acquired from Liberty Global is well ahead of plan.
The world has changed. The pandemic has shown how critical connectivity and digital services are to society. Vodafone is strongly positioned and through increased investment, we are taking action now to ensure we play a leadership role and capture the opportunities that these changes create. The increased demand for our services supports our ambition to grow revenues and cash flow over the medium-term. We remain fully focused on driving shareholder returns through deleveraging, improving our return on capital, and a firm commitment to our dividend.”