Vodafone Posts Lower Pretax Profit on Previous Business Disposals -- Update
14 November 2023 - 7:08PM
Dow Jones News
By Najat Kantouar
Vodafone Group has reiterated its full-year guidance as it
reported a much lower pretax profit for the first half of fiscal
2024, reflecting adverse foreign-exchange rate movements and
business disposals in the prior year.
The U.K. telecommunications company said Tuesday that it expects
to report underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation,
amortization and lease expenses of 13.3 billion euros ($14.23
billion) for the year ending March 31 compared with EUR14.7 billion
in fiscal 2023. Adjusted free cash is seen at around EUR3.3
billion, from EUR4.84 billion.
Pretax profit for the six months ended Sept. 30 was EUR550
million compared with EUR1.69 billion for the same period a year
earlier.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation,
amortization and lease expenses--which strips out exceptional and
other one-off items--was EUR6.39 billion compared with EUR7.24
billion with organic growth of 0.3% despite a significant increase
in energy costs.
Adjusted free cash outflow widened to EUR1.47 billion from
EUR513 million, reflecting a fall in adjusted Ebitda after leases
in the period, together with lower dividends from associates and
joint ventures.
Group revenue fell to EUR21.94 billion from EUR22.93 billion
despite service revenue growth in both Europe, excluding Turkey,
and Africa by 1.5% and 9.0%, respectively.
The board declared an interim dividend of 4.50 European cents
for the period, flat on year.
"During the first half of the year, we have delivered improved
revenue growth in nearly all of our markets and have returned to
growth in Germany in the second quarter. We have also announced
transactions to strengthen our position in the U.K. and exit the
challenging Spanish market in order to right-size our portfolio for
growth." Chief Executive Officer Margherita Della Valle said.
Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 14, 2023 02:53 ET (07:53 GMT)
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