Vodafone Announces Results for the Year Ended 31 March 2012
Robust financial performance in a difficult environment
- Robust financial performance in a difficult environment
- Group revenue up 1.2% to £46.4 billion; full year organic service revenue growth +1.5%*; Q4 +2.3%*
- EBITDA down 1.3% at £14.5 billion; EBITDA margin 31.2%, down 0.8 percentage points (0.6 percentage points before restructuring costs)
- Verizon Wireless service revenue up 7.3%*; our share of profits up 9.3%* to £4.9 billion
- Adjusted operating profit at £11.5 billion, up 2.5%* on an organic basis
- Gain on disposal of investments of £3.5 billion1 and impairment charges of £4.0 billion
- Free cash flow £6.1 billion after capex of £6.4 billion
- Final dividend per share of 6.47 pence, giving total dividends per share for the year of 13.52 pence (including 4.0 pence special dividend), up +51.9%
| Financial highlights | Change year-on-year | ||
| Year ended 31 March 2012 | Reported | Organic | |
| £m | % | % | |
| Group revenue | 46,417 | +1.2 | +2.2 |
| Group service revenue | 42,885 | +0.3 | +1.5 |
| Europe | 29,914 | (0.6) | (1.1) |
| Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific | 12,751 | +3.7 | +8.0 |
| Adjusted operating profit | 11,532 | (2.4) | (2.4) |
| Free cash flow | 6,105 | (13.4) | |
| EPS | 13.74p | (9.6) | |
| Adjusted EPS | 14.91p | (11.0) | |
| Total ordinary dividends per share | 9.52p | +7.0 |
Continued strategic progress
- Service revenue growth driven by focus on data (+22.2%*), enterprise (+2.2%*) and emerging markets (India +19.5%*3, Vodacom +7.1%*, Turkey +25.1%*)
- Smartphone penetration in Europe 26.9%, +8.3 percentage points year-on-year; 43.2% of consumer contract revenue in our major European markets from integrated tariffs in Q4
- £14.8 billion raised from disposals since September 2010, of which £6.8 billion committed to share buybacks – programme now 91% complete
- £2.9 billion income dividend received from Verizon Wireless (‘VZW’), of which £2.0 billion was paid out as a special dividend to Vodafone shareholders
Guidance for the 2013 financial year
- On an underlying basis, we expect growth in adjusted operating profit and stability in free cash flow
- Adjusted operating profit expected to be in the range of £11.1billion to £11.9 billion, reflecting the weaker euro offset by continued profit growth from VZW
- Free cash flow expected to be in the range of £5.3 billion to £5.8 billion, reflecting the weaker euro and the loss of the dividend from SFR
Vittorio Colao, Group Chief Executive, commented:
“Our focus on the key growth areas of data, emerging markets and enterprise is positioning us well in a difficult macroeconomic environment. Our commercial performance and our ability to leverage scale continue to be strong, enabling us to gain or hold market share in most of our key markets, and reduce the rate of margin decline. Our robust cash generation and the dividend received from Verizon Wireless have enabled us to translate this operational success into good returns for shareholders.
“Our goal over the next three years is to continue to strengthen our technology and commercial platforms through reliable and secure high speed data networks, significantly enhanced customer service across all channels, and improved data pricing models, to enrich customers’ experience and maximise our share of value in the markets in which we operate.”
For further information:
Investor Relations
Telephone: +44 7919 990230
Media Relations
Telephone: +44 1635 664444
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