LONDON – Mobile group Vodafone on Thursday said top-line growth in Germany in the third quarter and strong contributions from Turkey and Africa put full-year profit and cash flow on track to meet the top end of guidance.
The company’s shares have risen 73% in the past 12 months, and it reported a 6.5% rise in group total revenue to 10.5 billion euros ($12.4 billion), helped by the integration of mobile networks Three UK in Africa and last year in the United Kingdom.
In Germany, one of our largest markets, services revenue recorded top-line growth of 0.7%, an improvement from the previous quarter, while in the UK it was down 0.5%, reflecting the one-off impact of the prior year in the business sector.
Chief Executive Officer Margherita Della Valle said the integration of Three was proceeding very smoothly.
“Looking forward, we remain on track to achieve the high end of our guidance range for both earnings and cash flow,” he said.
The company reiterated that it expects adjusted core profit and free cash flow to reach the upper end of its guidance of 11.3 billion to 11.6 billion euros and 2.4 billion to 2.6 billion euros, respectively, for the year to the end of March.
The company announced that it will begin its next 500 million euro share buyback on Thursday, after completing a 3.5 billion euro share buyback since May 2024.
(1 dollar = 0.8475 euro)
