6th Dec 2006 07:02
Vodafone Group Plc06 December 2006 6 December 2006 VODAFONE ANALYST AND INVESTOR DAY: EMAPA REGION Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone") is today hosting an analyst and investor day inLondon, which will focus on its EMAPA (Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, AsiaPacific and Affiliates) region. The day will be introduced by Arun Sarin,Vodafone's Chief Executive, and this will be followed by an overview from PaulDonovan, CEO EMAPA, before individual presentations focusing on Vodafone'ssubsidiaries in Romania, Turkey and Egypt and its joint venture, Vodacom, inSouth Africa. The presentations given by the management of these businesses will highlight thelatest market dynamics and give greater detail on how these operations arecapturing the growth opportunities within their markets. In December 2005, Vodafone provided certain financial metrics on its business inTurkey and these will be updated during this morning's presentation. Vodafonereiterates its expectations of compound average annual revenue growth of 20% inUS$ for Vodafone Turkey for the next five years, but is now targeting EBITDA margin percentage in the medium term to be in the high-twenties compared withmid-twenties previously. The initial capital expenditure investment to turn around the business of US$1.2billion is now expected to be around US$850 million. As a result of this and abetter operating performance, Vodafone now expects to fund the initial capitalexpenditure investment from operating cash flows rather than through anadditional US$1 billion of funding previously envisaged. In terms of adjustedearnings per share dilution, Vodafone now sees the transaction diluting adjustedearnings per share for two years, one year less than previously anticipated. The principal driver of the EBITDA improvement in Vodafone Turkey has come fromsecuring greater cost efficiencies than previously envisaged. These include aninnovative contract that has today been awarded to Motorola to modernise, expandand upgrade the existing 2G Radio Access Network based on the expected total cost of ownership. This contract was designed to optimise Vodafone's capitalexpenditure in a way that is expected to minimise network operating costs andgive greater price predictability over the eight-year contract period, whiledelivering on certain key performance requirements in areas such as capacity andcoverage. Arun Sarin said: "Our recent interim results highlighted the operationalstrength of our EMAPA region and the growing importance of emerging markets tothe Group overall. Since May last year, we have enhanced our interest in allfour of the businesses presenting today and we look forward to their continuingstrong performance in the years ahead." Today's event will be broadcast live via a webcast available on the Vodafonewebsite http://www.vodafone.com/investor beginning at 9am (UK time). Allpresentations and related materials will be available through the webcast. - ends - For further information: Vodafone Group Investor RelationsTel: +44 (0) 1635 664447 Media RelationsTel: +44 (0) 1635 664444 CAUTIONARY STATEMENT This press release contains "forward-looking statements" with respect toVodafone's business in Turkey, including statements in relation to revenuegrowth, EBITDA margin, expected capital expenditure, operating performance andeffects of operating performance on Vodafone's earnings per share. By theirnature, these statements relate to events and depend on circumstances that willoccur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actualresults to differ materially from those expressed or implied by theseforward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, thefollowing: changes in economic or political conditions in Turkey that wouldadversely affect the level of demand for mobile services; greater thananticipated competitive activity; slower than expected customer growth in Turkeyand reduced customer retention; changes in the spending patterns of new andexisting customers; the Group's ability to develop competitive data content andservices that will attract new customers in Turkey and increase average usage;changes in the costs to the Group of or the rates the Group may charge forterminations and roaming minutes in the EMAPA region; and changes in exchangerates. Furthermore, a review of the reasons why actual results and developmentsmay differ materially from the expectations disclosed or implied withinforward-looking statements can be found under "Risk Factors, Trends and Outlook-Risk Factors" in the Group's Annual Report for the financial year ended31 March, 2006. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statementsattributable to Vodafone or any member of the Group or persons acting on theirbehalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred toabove. No assurances can be given that the forward-looking statements in thisdocument will be realised. Neither Vodafone nor any of its affiliates intends toupdate these forward-looking statements. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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