Vodafone closed the year with one net loss of 6,3 billion euros, down 18,7% on the previous fiscal year, when the red was 5,4 billion. But the group presents investors with strong growth in profitability and the Stock Exchange (London) rewards it.
The result of the group weighed above all the Indian division, even if the write-down produced by the merger of the local subsidiary with Idea Cellular was reduced from 5 to 3,7 billion.
At the group level, i revenues they fell by 4,4%, to 47,6 billion. However theadjusted organic ebitda instead it grew by 5,8%, to 14,149 billion. And most importantly, i operating profits have almost doubled (+182%) to 3,725 billion, while the cash flow increased by 2,8 billion to 4,1 billion. The net debt it expanded by 8,2%, to 31,169 billion.
Il balance on dividend thus it rises by 2%, to 10,03 cents. By adding this value to the previous down payment, the final dividend for the year it rises to 14,77 cents (against 14,48 in the previous fiscal year). “We expect to sustain our momentum into the new fiscal year, generating approximately $5 billion in free cash flow. Our confidence in the outlook is demonstrated by the 2% growth in the dividend,” he commented Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone, noting in particular that Vodafone "continues to be the fastest growing broadband operator" and that best seizes the "opportunities created by convergence and with a winning market share based on turnover". The CEO also underlined the contribution of the Business division and the growth in organic turnover which, together with the reduction in costs, have driven "the growth of adjusted Ebitda by 6% and improved cash generation".
After the release of these numbers, Vodafone's stock on the London Stock Exchange it goes up 3,9 percent.
As it regards instead Vodafone Italy, the fiscal year closed on March 31 with growth in revenues, margins and mobile and fixed broadband customers.
In detail, i revenues from services reached 5,2 billion euros (+2,3% compared to the previous year), growing for the fifth consecutive quarter, thanks in particular to an increase in ARPU (average revenues per customer) and an acceleration in growth of the fixed segment.
THEEbitda rose by 10,6%, faster than the growth in revenues, also thanks to the optimization of the cost structure, and stands at 2.229 million euros, equal to 36,5% of total revenues, up by 3 percentage points.
The growth of revenue from mobile services (+1,5%, to 4,3 billion) is supported by the positive results in the prepaid consumer segment, by the increase in mobile data consumption (+45%), and by the number of 4G customers which reach 9 million (+ 2,5 million compared to the previous year). THE revenues from fixed network services they amounted to 882 million euros (+6,8%).
The growth of the fixed broadband customers (+11,4%), which amount to 2,2 million. THE fiber customers they reached 0,7 million, an increase of 0,4 million in the fiscal year.
Vodafone finally announced the launch of the 4.5G mobile network up to 800 Mbps in the cities of Florence, Palermo and Milan, soon to be followed by Naples, Turin, Bologna, Rome and Genoa.
