Wednesday 02 February 2022 7:28 am

Strong signal: Vodafone revenue climbs to £9.7bn in latest quarter

Mobile service provider Vodafone is ringing in the new year with solid results as revenues climbed four per cent in the latest quarter.

In a trading update published today, Vodafone revealed that service revenue in the three months to 31 December climbed to €9.6bn (£8bn), while overall revenue jumped to €11.6bn, up by 4.3 per cent year on year.

The company reiterated that it expects EBITDA for the full year to fall within the upper range of guidance between €15.2bn and €15.4bn.

“Our team has delivered another solid quarter, demonstrating the sustainability of our growth strategy and medium-term ambition. This performance keeps us firmly on track to deliver FY22 results in line with the higher guidance we set out in November,” said chief executive Nick Read.

“We remain focused on our operational priorities to strengthen commercial momentum in Germany, accelerate our transformation in Spain and position Vodafone Business to maximise EU recovery funding opportunities. We are also committed to creating value for our shareholders through proactive portfolio actions and continuing to improve returns at pace,” he continued.

Europe represents Vodafone’s biggest market, accounting for more than half of company service revenue, with the phone giant providing 114m mobile connections, 143m marketable NGN broadband homes, and serving 8.6m fully converged customers.

It comes as the mobile giant faces pressure from activist investors to aggressively consolidate mobile operators in weaker telecoms markets like Spain, Italy and the UK. Vodafone has halved in value since 2018 with investors losing 9.4 per cent in the past five years versus a gain of 24.4 per cent for the FTSE 100 over that time.

Activist investor Cevian is also ramping up pressure on the firm’s board which it attacked for a lack of industry experience. It claimed the board does not have the necessary experience to challenge executive decision-making.