Vodafone Group Reiterates Full-Year Guidance, Sees Lower Pretax Profit

Vodafone Group has reaffirmed its full-year guidance despite reporting a decrease in pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2024. The decline can be attributed to adverse foreign-exchange rate movements and business disposals from the previous year.

Full-Year Outlook

Vodafone expects to achieve underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and lease expenses of €13.3 billion ($14.23 billion) for the year ending March 31, compared to €14.7 billion in fiscal 2023. Adjusted free cash is projected to be around €3.3 billion, down from €4.84 billion.

First-Half Results

For the six months ended September 30, pretax profit stood at €550 million, compared with €1.69 billion during the same period last year.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and lease expenses (excluding exceptional and one-off items) reached €6.39 billion, with organic growth of 0.3% in spite of a significant increase in energy costs.

Adjusted free cash outflow widened to €1.47 billion from €513 million, primarily due to a decline in adjusted Ebitda after leases and lower dividends from associates and joint ventures.

Revenue and Dividend

Group revenue declined to €21.94 billion from €22.93 billion. However, service revenue in Europe (excluding Turkey) and Africa saw growth of 1.5% and 9.0%, respectively.

The board announced an interim dividend of 4.50 European cents for the period, remaining unchanged from last year.

CEO Statement

"During the first half of the year, we have witnessed 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, aiming to optimize our portfolio for future growth," stated Chief Executive Officer Margherita Della Valle.