Vodacom Group revenue increased by 4.8 percent to ZAR 90.75 billon for the year ended 31 March from ZAR 86.63 billion in the same period of 2019, supported by service revenue growth of 5.0 percent. The mobile phone firm added 5.9 million customers and reached 116 million across the group. Total financial services customers were up 12.8 percent or 6.0 million to 53.2 million.
Net profit rose by 7.2 percent to ZAR 16.64 billion from ZAR 15.53 billion in 2019. Earnings per share (EPS) rose by 7.7 percent to ZAR 9.39 from ZAR 8.72 and headline earnings for per share (HEPS) were up 8.9 percent to ZAR 9.45 from ZAR 8.68, boosted by the one-off BEE costs of ZAR 1.5 billion including transaction costs in the prior period.
EBITDA increased by 11.6 percent to ZAR 37.61 billion from ZAR 33.71 billion in 2019. Capital expenditure increased by 2 percent to ZAR 13.22 billion from ZAR 12.96 billion in 2019.The group adopted IFRS 16 on 01 April 2019 with the cumulative retrospective impact reflected as an adjustment to equity on the date of adoption.
In International operations, service revenue was up 12.5 percent for the year, bolstered by strong performances at M-Pesa and data services. The International operations now contribute 29.7 percent (2019: 27.7%) to Group service revenue. Vodacom added 4.0 million new customer in these markets, up 11.5 percent from the prior year to 38.6 million. Data services added 2.3 million new customers during the period to 20.0 million, of which only 10.2 million customers are on smartphones. M-Pesa revenue growth was 29.8 percent to ZAR 4.0 billion and M-Pesa customers increased 9.2 percent to 14.7 million, representing 38.2 percent of the group’s customer base.
EBITDA grew 9.4 percent as margins improved by 0.8 percentage points, driven by 'Fit for growth' programmes. The improvements in the second half of the year were slightly impaired by lower service revenue growth in Tanzania, higher compliance costs to accelerate customer registrations, and a 2G licence penalty in DRC. The combined costs amounted to ZAR199 million.
As the group adopted IFRS 16 on 01 April 2019, information presented for the year ended 31 March 2019 is given under the previous statement IAS 17, while the year ended 31 March 2020 is presented in accordance with IFRS 16.
