Vodafone Reports Full-Year Organic Revenue, Profit Growth

By Stu Woo 

LONDON-- Vodafone Group PLC on Tuesday reported full-year organic growth in both revenue and core earnings for the first time since 2008, but said it would spend more than previously indicated in the current fiscal year to improve its networks.

Vodafone, the world's second-largest mobile carrier by subscriptions behind China Mobile Ltd., reported revenue of GBP41.0 billion ($58.9 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, down 3% from a year earlier and in line with analysts' expectations.

The company said the decline was primarily due to foreign-exchange movements, and that organic growth was 2.3%.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were GBP11.6 billion, again in line with analysts' expectations. This equated to a decline of 2.5%, which the company attributed to foreign-exchange movements, but an organic increase of 2.7%.

Vodafone reported a lost of GBP3.8 billion for the year, compared with a profit of GBP5.9 billion a year earlier.

"This has been a year of strong execution," Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said in a conference call.

Shares were up 4.6% in early trading.

Vodafone in March completed Project Spring, a two-year, GBP19 billion effort to improve its networks. But the company said it is targeting capital expenditure of around 15% of annual revenue for the current fiscal year, higher than the 13%-14% range previously anticipated.

Mr. Colao said the company wanted to invest more on its mobile network, broadband network, enterprise business and in emerging markets.

Write to Stu Woo at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 17, 2016 04:00 ET (08:00 GMT)

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