Vodafone Group PLC (LON:VOD), trading update for the quarter ended 30 June 2018.
Highlights
· Group total revenue of €10.9 billion (IFRS 15 basis), down 4.9% reflecting the adoption of IFRS 15 and FX headwinds
· Q1 organic service revenue grew 0.3%* on an IAS 18 basis, or 1.1%* based on IFRS 15 (which is not impacted by the drag from UK handset financing)
· Europe declined by 1.3%* (IAS 18), but grew 0.5%* excluding drags from regulation and UK handset financing
· AMAP grew 7.0%* (IAS 18), with growth that was faster than local inflation in South Africa, Turkey and Egypt
· India declined by 22.3%* (IAS 18) due to price competition and MTR cuts, but was down only 1.4% compared to Q4
· Growth engines supporting solid commercial momentum: Mobile data traffic grew 57%; 196,000 broadband net adds, and a record 289,0001 converged net adds; Enterprise grew 0.9%*, or 2.0%* excluding regulation
· Guidance reiterated: underlying2 organic adjusted EBITDA growth of 1-5%, FCF pre-spectrum of at least €5.2 billion
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Quarter ended 30 June |
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2018 |
2017 |
Statutory |
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IFRS 15 |
IAS 18 |
Growth |
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|
€m |
€m |
% |
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Group revenue |
10,910 |
11,474 |
(4.9) |
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Europe |
7,966 |
8,299 |
(4.0) |
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Africa, Middle East & Asia Pacific (‘AMAP’) |
2,652 |
2,881 |
(7.9) |
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|
|
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Growth |
|
|
|
2018 |
2017 |
IAS 18 |
IFRS 15 |
|
|
IAS 18 |
IAS 18 |
Organic* |
Organic* |
Alternative performance measures3 |
€m |
€m |
% |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
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|
Group service revenue |
9,850 |
10,282 |
0.3 |
1.1 |
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Europe |
7,494 |
7,624 |
(1.3) |
(0.4) |
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AMAP |
2,223 |
2,430 |
7.0 |
7.2 |
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Vittorio Colao, Group Chief Executive, commented:
“The Group’s organic service revenue growth slowed during the first quarter, in line with expectations. The majority of our operations performed well, with ongoing momentum in Germany, further underlying recovery in the UK and continued good growth in AMAP, all of which helped to offset increased competition in Italy and Spain. Our commercial performance was solid, with further broadband market share gains in Europe, a record number of customers adopting our converged propositions, and the continued success of our world-leading IoT platform. In India, where competition remains intense, we have now received conditional approval from the Department of Telecoms for the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which we aim to close before the end of August, allowing us to unlock substantial synergies. The Group’s overall performance (including good progress in reducing absolute operating costs for the third year running) provides us with the confidence to reiterate our outlook for the year”.