Growing accounts for Vodafone Group which published the data for the third quarter of the 2019-2020 fiscal year which ended last December 31st. In the three months, revenues increased by 6,8% to 11,75 billion mainly driven by the excellent performance recorded in Europe, where turnover increased by 10,1% to 8,9 billion.
I Organic services revenues rose 0,8% to $9,73 billion thanks to the growth recorded in Germany (total revenues of 3,2 billion and 2,8 billion from services) and the United Kingdom (revenues of 1,7 billion in total and 1,28 billion from services).
For Italy total revenues amounted to 1,4 billion euro, while organic ones fell by 5%, weighed down by mobile (-7,7%). “The decline – explains Vodafone in a note – is mainly due to a smaller active customer base following the arrival of a new operator in the previous year. However, portability volume was down 5% year-over-year, reflecting fewer flows among major brands. The company also points out the excellent performance recorded by ho., a secondary brand belonging to Vodafone, which continued to grow in our country, reaching 1,6 million active users in the quarter.
To compensate for the difficulties of the mobile there is the galloping of the fixed, which in the third quarter recorded revenues up by 4,2%. Vodafone Italia reached 35.000 new broadband customers in the quarter and a converging customer base of one million, or 35% of the total.
From a global point of view, the company confirmed the estimates on the gross operating margin for the entire year, between 14,8 and 15 billion euros, while cash is expected to be around 5,4 billion.
The CEO Nick Read he underlined how “the pace maintained in commercial and strategic priorities allowed us to confirm growth in the quarter”. According to Read, competition in Europe, where revenues rose 10,1% to 8,97 billion, remains "challenging". The Group, he concluded, expects a “gradual further improvement in service revenues for the fourth quarter”.
Vodafone is also evaluating the possibility of an IPO of the Towers division in early 2021. “We recently announced the sale of our stake in Vodafone Egypt, which reduces our net debt,” Read added. We have also appointed the management team for our European TowerCo business and are preparing for a potential IPO in early 2021.”
On the Stock Exchange, after the publication of the accounts, Vodafone shares gained 1% to 152,76 pounds.
