JOHANNESBURG, May 20 (Reuters) - South Africa's VodacomGroup reported a 23 percent rise in full-year profit onMonday underpinned by a strong performance by its Africansubsidiaries and growth in data usage.
The unit of Britain's Vodafone Group said dilutedheadline earnings per share, which is the benchmark measure ofprofit in South Africa, totalled 870.2 cents in the year to end-March, from 706 cents a year earlier.
The company had previously said headline earnings would riseby 25 percent higher. It raised its final dividend by 11 percentto 785 cents, exceeding a Reuters poll of analysts that hadforecast a 9 percent increase.
Vodacom, which also has operations in Lesotho, Mozambique,Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been scouringAfrica for acquisitions as competition intensifies in its keySouth African market.
It held cash and cash equivalents of 6.5 billion rand ($693million) at the end of March 31, nearly double from a yearearlier.
Vodacom shares are down nearly 7 percent so far this year,lagging a 5.6 percent rise in the JSE Top 40 index.