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LONDON (Alliance News) - Vodafone Group PLC on Friday reiterated its annual guidance, as the telecommunications firm reported a fall in revenue for its third quarter.
For the three months to December 31, Vodafone's revenue was EUR11.00 billion, down 6.8% on a reported basis year-on-year.
This figure was hindered by accounting changes, the sale of Vodafone's stake in its Qatari business, and foreign exchange.
In the third quarter, organic service revenue rose 0.1% year-on-year, slowing from 0.5% annual growth in the second quarter. Using Vodafone's previous accounting method, growth actually improved to 0.4% from 0.3% in the prior quarter.
On a reported basis, Vodafone's service revenue fell to 3.9% to EUR9.79 billion.
European revenue fell 5.6% to EUR8.15 billion year-on-year, with Europe service revenue slipping 1.1% organically to EUR7.50 billion. On a reported basis, European service revenue was down 2.0%.
Rest of the World revenue declined 11% reported to EUR2.55 billion, but RoW service revenue rose 4.9% organically to EUR2.17 billion. On a reported basis, the figure fell 7.2%.
"We have executed at pace this quarter and have improved the consistency of our commercial performance," said Chief Executive Nick Read.
"Lower mobile contract churn across our markets and improved customer trends in Italy and Spain are encouraging, however these have not yet translated into our financial results, with a similar revenue trend in Europe to the second quarter."
"We enjoyed good growth across our emerging markets with the exception of South Africa, which was impacted by our pricing transformation initiatives and a challenging macroeconomic environment. Overall, this performance underpins our confidence in our full year guidance," he added.
Vodafone's guidance for its year ending March is for organic adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation to rise by around 3% year-on-year.
Under old accounting standards, service revenue growth "will be slightly" higher and absolute adjusted Ebitda will be slightly lower, the company said.
In Vodafone's prior financial year, adjusted Ebitda increased 4.2% on a reported basis year-on-year to EUR14.74 billion, and rose 12% organically.
