Vodacom on Monday reported a 7.4% rise in group service revenue to R66.76 billion, in results for the year ended March 2016, underpinned by improved trends in voice revenue and data revenue growth of 28.5%.<\/p>\n
Data revenue contributes 31.9% of group service revenue compared to 26.7% a year ago, it said.<\/p>\n
Revenue grew at 7.5%, to R80 billion, supported by strong demand for devices, particularly smartphones, the group said.<\/p>\n
In South Africa, service revenue returned to growth increasing 4.9% (R49.3 billion) mainly due to the growth in mobile data and fixed-line services, and improving voice revenue growth trends, Vodacom said.<\/p>\n
Group operating profit increased 9.5% to R21 billion mainly due to EBITDA growth, partly offset by higher depreciation and amortisation of R8.74 billion as the company said it accelerated capex investment over the past two years.<\/p>\n
In South Africa, operating profit increased 8.6% to R19 billion, while international
\noperations’ operating profit increased 20.5% to R1.89 billion.<\/p>\n
Headline earnings per share improved to\u00a0 883 cents per share versus 860 cents before.<\/p>\n
Group capital expenditure of R12. 875 billion, focused on rapidly expanding LTE\/4G coverage and increasing data speeds, the company said.<\/p>\n
Vodacom announced a final dividend per share of 400 cents, taking the total dividend to 795 cents per share for the year.<\/p>\n
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, said: “I am very pleased with our performance this year, with strong execution of our strategy delivering solid results. The acceleration in network investment over the past two years is a true success story of effective capital investment to ensure growth in revenue and customers.<\/p>\n
“The demand for data continues to be our key driver. Overall revenue grew 7.5% with a
\nslight decline in customers to 61.3 million, as a result of customer registration requirements in our International operations.”<\/p>\n
In South Africa, Joosub said that the company’s network superiority has played a significant part in offering better value to 34.2 million customers, 2.1 million up from last year.<\/p>\n
“We spent R8.7 billion to upgrade our network infrastructure which includes more than doubling our LTE\/4G sites to over 6,000. This enabled us to increase LTE\/4G coverage across South Africa to 58% (from 35%) to satisfy exceptional growth in demand for data.”<\/p>\n
Vodacom calls it quits on M-pesa in South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n