6th Feb 2014 10:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Vodafone Group PLC confirmed its full-year guidance Thursday, expecting an adjusted operating profit of around GBP5.0 billion, as it saw group revenue decline 4.8% in the third quarter ended December 31, 2013.
Including account mergers & acquisitions and currency changes, Vodafone posted service revenue of GBP9.86 billion for the quarter. The company saw revenue decline 9.6% in Europe, hit by mobile termination rate cuts and continued price competition in the region.
Vodafone said that whilst conditions are still difficult in Europe, it was continuing to offset this through on-going improvements to its operating model and cost efficiency.
In the Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific region, revenue rose 5.5%, driven particularly by strong growth in India, which saw revenue rise 13.2%.
Vodafone said that the shift towards new 4G services was gaining momentum, and that it was optimistic its revenue performance will improve as regulatory headwinds ease, and customers moved towards the new services. Vodafone now has around 2 million customers on the 4G Red service in Europe.
Currently, Vodafone's 4G services are available in 13 countries.
Vodafone said that it had made progress with its 2015 strategy. The company said that it now had 9.8 million customers on its Vodafone Red service, and was on target to have 11 to 12 million customers on the service by March 2014.
The FTSE 100 telecommunications company said that it had begun its GBP7 billion investment programme Project Spring during the quarter. The project is designed to strengthen its network and services. Vodafone said that it had established a governance structure for Project Spring to oversee the procurement and progress of deployment, and it was in negotiations with network vendors.
Vodafone will select its preferred vendors for the project in February and said that contracts will be awarded shortly after that.
Project Spring was announced in September when Vodafone sold its 45% interest in US joint venture Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications Inc for USD130 billion.
Shares in Vodafone were trading up 2.7% at 221.81 pence Thursday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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