Vodafone Group reported revenues for its fiscal first quarter to June up 5.7 percent year-on-year to EUR 11.10 billion, as both consumer and business sales recovered from the initial impact of the coronavirus pandemic a year ago. Service revenue rose 3.3 percent on an organic basis (0.8% in Q4) to EUR 9.39 billion, with growth in both Europe and Africa. The company said the solid performance puts its on track to achieve its full-year EBITDA and cash flow guidance issued in May.
Profit figures were not released in the trading update. Service revenue growth was led by the UK and Germany, with organic growth of respectively 2.5 and 1.4 percent, while Vodacom in Africa grew by 7.9 percent. Italy remained 3.6 percent lower, while Spain recovered to service revenue growth of 0.8 percent. Vodafone said service revenue growth also accelerated in Turkey, Egypt and other markets, helped by a pick-up in roaming, handset sales and business activity.
Roaming and visitor revenue grew 56 percent year-on-year, but was still 54 percent lower than Q1 FY20 (pre-pandemic). Vodafone Business service revenue increased 2.7 percent on an organic basis to EUR 2.54 billion, driven by strong growth in IoT and digital services, the company said, and M-Pesa transaction volumes increased 45 percent year-on-year.
Vodafone ended the quarter with 272.4 million mobile customers, up by 2.6 million from three months earlier and a 4.2 percent increase year-on-year. Fixed broadband subscribers grew more slowly, up by just 61,000 in the three months to almost 24.6 million. NGN customers in Europe were up by 240,000 compared to March to 19.7 million. Customers taking both fixed and mobile services reached 6.7 million, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier.
