Profit growth for Vodafone as strategic transformation takes shape

Telecoms giant Vodafone has reported a “resilient” performance for the first half of the financial year.

During the first half of its current financial year, the group saw a profit increase of €1.55bn - compared with a loss of €1.89bn in the previous year.

The news comes as the firm continues its transformation strategy, which began in November 2018 to boost growth in converged connectivity markets in Europe, as well as mobile data and payments in Africa.

The firm also reported a drop in revenue from €21.9bn to €21.4bn, which it has attributed to disruption caused by COVID-19.

Nick Read, Vodafone’s group chief executive, commented: “Today’s results underline increased confidence in our full year outlook. We are reporting a resilient first half performance and we continue to see good commercial momentum across the group.

“The results demonstrate the success of our strategic priorities to date, namely increasing customer loyalty, growing our fixed broadband base, driving digitisation to simplify the company and capture significant cost savings, and deliver 5G efficiently through network sharing.

“COVID-19 and the reduction in roaming revenues, through the significant reduction in international travel, is currently obscuring our underlying commercial progress, with Q2 service revenue growing by 1.5 per cent excluding roaming.

“We are now two years into our longer-term strategy to transform Vodafone into a business that enables a digital society, generating both sustainable growth and attractive returns.”