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LONDON (Alliance News) - Mobile operator Vodafone Group PLC on Tuesday reported annual results that fell just shy of market expectations, and guided for earnings growth in the year ahead.
Vodafone reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of GBP11.61 billion for its full financial year that ended in March, below the range of GBP11.7 billion to GBP12.0 billion that the company had guided and down from the GBP11.9 billion it reported the year before.
This was on revenue of GBP40.97 billion, down from GBP42.23 billion in the previous year.
Consensus expectations compiled by the company were for Ebitda of GBP11.64 billion, on revenue of GBP40.99 billion, down from GBP42.23 billion the previous year.
Vodafone proposed a final dividend of 7.77 pence per share, taking its total dividend for the year to 11.45p, up from the 11.22p it paid in the previous year.
For the year ahead, Vodafone expects organic growth in Ebitda of between 3% and 6%, which it said implies a results between EUR15.7 billion and EUR16.2 billion. It expects free cash flow of at least EUR4.0 billion before the impact of mergers and acquisition, spectrum payments and restructuring costs.
Vodafone will switch to reporting in euros for the current year to end-March 2017, and will also declare dividends in euros for the year ahead. It said it plans to grow dividends per share yearly, demonstrating its confidence in future cash-flow generation.
"We have now successfully concluded our Project Spring organic investment programme. This has transformed the quality of our technology, enhancing our customers' experience and enabling us to expand our Enterprise services. We are pleased to be the leader or co-leader in mobile network quality tests and net promoter scores in the majority of our markets. We have also posted a record quarter of net additions in fixed as our convergence strategy continues to accelerate," said Chief Executive Vittorio Colao in a statement.
"Looking forward, we will continue to invest in our customer excellence programmes in both mobile and converged services. I am confident we will sustain our positive momentum in the coming year, allowing us to maintain attractive returns for our shareholders," Colao added.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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