Vodafone, the world’s second-largest carrier, reported revenue gains on May 18 for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year ending March 31, 2015 – the first such growth in almost three years.
The Britian-based multinational telecom group posted quarterly service revenue of $14.87 billion up from $13.9 billion for the same period the previous year. For the entire fiscal year, total group revenue came in at $65.55 billion up 10.1% compared to the previous year.
Many took Vodafone’s return to growth as a sign of an improving sector in Europe, including Vodafone’s own CEO Vittorio Colao.
“It has been a year of continued progress, culminating with a return to organic growth in Q4,” Colao said. “We have seen increasing signs of stabilization in many of our European markets, supported by improvements in our commercial execution and very strong demand for data.”
Vodafone is in the midst of its “Project Spring” investment program and reported that it has completed 63% of its mobile build plan. The company’s European 4G coverage is now at 72%, reaching 28 million homes. In total Vodafone now has 20.2 million 4G customers in 18 markets worldwide. The company has seen a corresponding increase in data volume, which is up 81% year-on-year during the quarter.
More telecom news from Europe, the Middle East and Africa:
• Deutsche Telekom acquires the rest of Slovak Telekom for $999.3 million. The German telco giant announced on May 19 that it is purchasing the 49% stake of Slovak Telekom that it does not already own. DT said the acquisition was in line with its strategy to become a leading pan-European operator. Slovak Telekom is the only operator in Slovakia with quad-play capabilities, which made it highly attractive, according to DT board member Claudia Nemat.
• Zain Iraq to sell 25% of its shares. The parent firm of Zain Iraq plans to join the Iraq Stock Exchange and sell 25% of the company’s shares, bringing it into compliance with the terms of its license, according to the Gulf Daily News. All three mobile operators with licenses in Iraq were obligated to join the exchange by 2011 and sell a quarter of their shares. Until now, Zain Iraq, the country’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, was out of compliance and was paying a daily fine.
• Orange gets green light for Spainish Jazztel acquisition. France’s leading telecom made key concessions to win European Commission approval for its plan to buy Jazztel, a broadband provider in Spain. The commission called for a number of remedies that will enable another player to enter the Spanish market, according to Bloomberg. The remedies include Orange divesting optical fiber that covers between 700,000 and 800,000 building units as well as granting wholesale access to its copper network and optional access to its mobile network. The full commission terms can be read here.
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