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JOHANNESBURG, Nov 14 (Reuters) - South Africa's biggestmobile phone operator Vodacom Group reported flathalf-year earnings on Monday, hurt by a one-off tax adjustmentand currency effects.
The mobile operator said headline earnings per share, whichstrips out certain one-off items and is the main profit measurein South Africa -- was unchanged year on year at 440 cents forthe six months to Sept. 30.
"The overall strong operational performance for the sixmonths was negatively impacted by a one-off adjustment intaxation for Tanzania as well as the impact from weaker localmarket foreign currency," Vodacom said in a statement.
The Group delivered service revenue growth of 5.3 percent,led by a 2.3 million increase in active customers since March2016, mostly in South Africa.
Active international customers decreased 11 percent to 27.9million as authorities in markets that include Tanzania madechanges to the way Vodacom registers subscribers.
"As expected, our international operations have beenimpacted by customer registration requirements," Chief ExecutiveOfficer Shameel Joosub said in a conference call, referring tothe Tanzania telecoms regulator's disconnection of 600,000phones from mobile networks lats June in an effort to stamp outcounterfeit devices.
"However, the monthly customer acquisitions trend hasimproved, with net customers additions turning positive andrecovering during the second quarter."
Shares in Vodacom rose by almost 1 percent to 144.50 rand by0704 GMT.
Group data revenue was up 18.7 percent, supported by strongnetwork investment, the company said.
The South African unit of Britain's Vodafone hasspent 37 billion rand ($2.58 billion) over the past three yearsto expand its network, with a strong focus on providing fasterInternet services as increasing numbers of consumers usesmartphones.
In the first half of the year the group invested 5.7 billionrand. Vodacom is targeting group capital expenditure of 12-14percent of group revenue in the medium term.
Vodacom declared an interim dividend per share of 395 cents,the same as last year.($1 = 14.3648 rand) (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by David Goodman)
