Vodafone Ireland rings up 2.1% revenue rise in first quarter

Service revenues at Vodafone Ireland rose 2.1 per cent in the first quarter to €198.8 million versus the same three months a year earlier, the company has said.

Vodafone said its fixed broadband customer base jumped 4.3 per cent year-on-year to 301,200, while it also added 17,000 additional mobile subscribers.

“We are pleased with the positive performance in the last quarter, particularly as we continued to face challenges arising from the pandemic. This includes growth across our fixed broadband and mobile services,” said Vodafone Ireland chief executive Anne O’Leary.

The latest figures come as the Irish subsidiary’s parent, Vodafone Group, reported a better-than-expected 3.3 per cent rise in first-quarter service revenue. This included a one-off gain of around one percentage point following Covid-19 disruption last year.

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Analysts on average expected a rise of 1.4 per cent for the three months.

Group chief executive Nick Read said the company was back to service revenue growth in Europe as well as Africa.

“This growth was broad-based within both consumer and business segments, with the vast majority of our markets contributing,” he said.

Momentum

Vodafone said it maintained momentum in its biggest market, Germany, with growth accelerating to 1.4 per cent against 1.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, while both Britain and Spain returned to quarter-on-quarter growth as Covid restrictions eased.

Continued price competition in Italy resulted in a 3.6 per cent decline in service revenue against a 7.8 per cent decline in the previous quarter.

Vodafone said it was on track to deliver its full-year targets of between €15 billion and €15.4 billion in adjusted earnings, and adjusted free cash flow of at least €5.2 billion.

Additional reporting: Reuters