Vodafone managed to post a profit last year despite persistent challenges brought on by the coronavirus in its main European markets. Lockdown restrictions and reduced international travel hit new smartphone purchases and roaming revenues and contributed to a 2,6% drop in Group revenue to €43,8 billion. However, Vodafone said it was pleased with the stable revenue from the service and the contribution from the German and Central European companies acquired from Liberty Global. The operator's digital and efficiency efforts have also saved €500 million across the company.
Vodafone billing
The company now has 65,4 million mobile customers and 25,6 million broadband customers across the continent, while increasing engagement, reducing churn rate, increasing ARPU (average revenue per user), and seeing drop the average data consumption from 5,7 GB to 7,2 GB. At the same time, the €2.300 billion proceeds from the IPO were used to reduce debt. The €536 million profit compares favorably with the €455 million loss reported last year (largely due to a writedown of Vodafone's Indian joint venture), and the company is pleased with what it sees as a broader economic “resilient performance”. climate. Group CEO Nick Read said it aims to deliver the next phase of its strategy to become a next-generation digital connectivity and services provider in Europe and Africa with a medium-term ambition to generate revenue and returns through of faster growth. “We have completed the first phase of our strategy to reshape Vodafone as a stronger connectivity provider, including streamlining the group in Europe and Africa, the successful IPO of Vantage Towers, the rapid deployment of our new generation of fixed networks and mobile. , gain share in broadband subscriptions and continue to reduce customer churn,” he said. “Our digital transformation initiatives generated savings of €500 million during the year and the integration of the assets acquired from Liberty Global is well above expectations. The world has changed. The pandemic has shown how essential connectivity and digital services are for society. Vodafone is well positioned and with further investment we are acting now to ensure we play a leading role and seize the opportunities these changes create. “Increased demand for our services supports our ambition to increase revenue and cash flow in the medium term. We remain fully focused on generating shareholder returns through deleveraging, improving our return on equity and a strong commitment to our dividend. " In the UK, revenue fell 5,1% to €6.200bn due to the same factors affecting other markets. However, the churn rate fell from 14,1% to 13% and the company added 219.000 subscribers to the mobile contract and achieved 192.000 net additions to its broadband service, which contributed to a 5,6% increase in its revenues.