News
Despite declines in other key markets, Vodafone UK reported an increase in sales in its quarterly results this morning
Vodafone reported a 3.7% rise in organic revenue growth to €10.7 billion in the first quarter of this year, although reported growth fell by 4.8%.
In the UK, service revenue rose by 5.7% to £1.2 billion, due in part to price rises that came into effect in April, which saw mobile contracts increase by around £3 annually.
Strong performance in the UK will help the firm to offset declines in its largest market, Germany, along with Italy and Spain, where revenues continue to decrease.
In Germany, revenue dropped by 1.3%, which the firm says reflects “the cumulative impact of customer losses over the past 18 months”. Vodafone Germany has lost over 121,000 cost-conscious broadband consumers to rivals in the past 18 months, though this reduction in revenue was partially offset by newly introduced price rises.
Italy and Spain also saw reductions in service revenue of 1.6% and 3%, respectively.
The news comes as Vodafone announced today that Luca Mušić will join the firm as Chief Financial Officer in September. He will succeed Margarita Della Valle, who became CEO following the departure of Nick Read at the end of last year.
Vodafone’s £15 billion merger deal with Three, which was unveiled last month, is set to be completed late next year and, if approved, will make the merged company the UK’s largest mobile operator. Despite facing scrutiny similar to that of 2016’s blocked O2–Three merger, CEO Margherita Della Valle said that engagement with the Competition and Markets authority is already underway, and the company expects to file the draft merger notice “in the next few weeks”.
Vodafone’s share price rose 4.5% this morning.
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Also in the news:
Vodafone warns of investment cuts if Three merger is blocked
Vodafone and Three UK closing in on merger
Dish and EchoStar consider merger
