Vodacom revenue rises 3.9%

Published: 20 July 2017

Vodacom's first-quarter revenue grew 3.9% as Africa's largest carrier by market value invested in its network and increased sales of smartphones in South Africa.

South Africa revenue growth accelerated to 7.8% aided by stronger device sales, while international revenue declined 8.2% mainly due to currency translation.

Group data revenue increased 15.1% and now representing 39% of service revenue

The unit of Vodafone reported revenue of R20.7bn, propelled by a 15% rise in data sales. The Johannesburg-based company added 2.5 million customers during the quarter, 2.3 million in South Africa and 280 thousand in our International operations, to reach almost 70 million customers, it said in a statement on Thursday.

Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO commented:

"The solid performance the Group delivered in FY2017, continued into the first quarter of the current financial year. In South Africa, revenue growth accelerated to 7.8%, aided by increased smartphone device sales. We sustained South African service revenue growth of 5.6%, underpinned by the consistent and significant investment in our network infrastructure and IT systems, aimed at further enhancing the customer experience. Our pricing transformation strategy continues to deliver greater value for our 39 million South African customers. The 9.1% and 18.9% decline in effective voice and data prices respectively over the quarter reflects our commitment to driving down the cost to communicate in South Africa. As I have stated previously, there is more work to be done on this front, and we will be introducing additional measures this year to give greater control to customers by improving our out-of-bundle pricing.

"Although the International operations have turned the corner, currency volatility is still negatively impacting translation of these results. We now have 30 million customers outside of South Africa, an increase of 12.0%. Following the phenomenal success in South Africa of our ‘Just 4 You' platform, customers in all our operations are starting to enjoy the benefits of this personalised offers platform. We expect that this will contribute to the operational momentum in these markets. Following the shareholder approval of the acquisition of a stake in Safaricom on 18 July this will further boost contribution outside of South Africa.

"Our strategy to become a leading digital company and empowering a connected society is our key area of focus. We continue to make substantial investments in all our operations so that we maintain our network lead and IT advantage. This will enable us to transform our product offerings, customer experience, operations and organisation to deliver on our digital aspirations.

"We remain cognisant of the weaker economic conditions that prevail in South Africa as well as some of our larger markets and have put measures in place should these conditions deteriorate materially in these markets."

- Businessdaily

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