Ben
4th February 2010, 03:14 PM
"Shares in Vodafone rose sharply this morning as the UK-based mobile group lifted its earnings guidance for its current fiscal year due to improved cash flow and a leap in data revenue. Vodafone said that operating profit for its fiscal-year 2010 (ending in March) would now be between £11.4 billion and £11.8 billion (up from a previous range of between £11 billion and £11.8 billion), while its cash flow range was lifted by £500 million to between £6.5 billion and £7 billion. Meanwhile, group revenue for the quarter ended 31 December 2009 increased by 10.3 percent to £11.5 billion, and service revenue rose 11 percent to £10.7 billion. The results reflected improvements at the operators mature European markets, which have dampened results in recent quarters. European service revenue fell 3.2 percent (to £7.2 billion), but was a 1.4 percentage point improvement on the previous quarter. Vodafone pointed to recoveries in key markets such as Italy, UK and Germany. Vodafones proportionate customer base (weighted by its ownership of each operator subsidiary) reached 333 million by the end of the year, adding 10.3 million net additions during the quarter.
A highlight in the numbers was group data revenue, which exceeded £1 billion for the first time and was up 17.7 percent year-on-year. Vodafone said that data revenue was driven by the increased take up of data-enabled smartphones across Europe where active data users now exceed 30 million. Data as a percentage of service revenue in Europe was 11 percent, increasing for the sixth consecutive quarter. Fixed-line revenue was also strong, growing by 10 percent to £862 million in the quarter. Service revenue trends have improved with continuing growth in our data and fixed-line revenue, said Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao (pictured). Free cash flow guidance has been raised reflecting the impact of our cost and working capital reduction programmes. We are on track to deliver on our strategic priorities in the current financial year."
GSMA Mobile Business Briefing 4 February 2010
Data, while only accounting for 11% of revenue, likely accounts for massively more as a percentage of network utilisation. The move towards becoming data service providers (and so Internet service providers) is likely to be a painful one. Still, it looks like the sun has got its hat on in shareholder land today.
Strong results, I wonder what shareholder sentiment towards Colao is like compared to Sarin, who it seemed was always slightly at odds with them.
A highlight in the numbers was group data revenue, which exceeded £1 billion for the first time and was up 17.7 percent year-on-year. Vodafone said that data revenue was driven by the increased take up of data-enabled smartphones across Europe where active data users now exceed 30 million. Data as a percentage of service revenue in Europe was 11 percent, increasing for the sixth consecutive quarter. Fixed-line revenue was also strong, growing by 10 percent to £862 million in the quarter. Service revenue trends have improved with continuing growth in our data and fixed-line revenue, said Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao (pictured). Free cash flow guidance has been raised reflecting the impact of our cost and working capital reduction programmes. We are on track to deliver on our strategic priorities in the current financial year."
GSMA Mobile Business Briefing 4 February 2010
Data, while only accounting for 11% of revenue, likely accounts for massively more as a percentage of network utilisation. The move towards becoming data service providers (and so Internet service providers) is likely to be a painful one. Still, it looks like the sun has got its hat on in shareholder land today.
Strong results, I wonder what shareholder sentiment towards Colao is like compared to Sarin, who it seemed was always slightly at odds with them.