Vodafone Group has reported a strong opening to its fiscal year 2022, with revenue in the three months to end-June boosted by growth in Europe and Africa, and roaming benefitting as Covid-19 restrictions began to ease.
In a trading update for its fiscal Q1, the operator posted a 5.7 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue to €11.1 billion, with service revenue up 3.1 per cent to €9.4 billion on the back of growth across consumer and business units.
It did not provide a net income figure.
Service revenue in Germany was up 1.1 per cent to €2.9 billion, while the UK grew 2.5 per cent to €1.3 billion. Spain was flat at €925 million and Italy fell 3.6 per cent to €1.1 billion.
Overall, roaming and visitor revenue grew 56 per cent, though Vodafone noted the figure was 54 per cent lower than fiscal Q1 2020, which was pre-pandemic.
CEO Nick Read hailed the return to service revenue growth in Europe and Africa, with “the vast majority of our markets contributing”.
He added the operating and retail environment in Europe “has not yet returned to normal conditions”, but it was still delivering a good service revenue performance.
In Africa, Vodafone noted continued strength in mobile money platform M-Pesa, with 4.5 million transactions processed up 45 per cent. Vodacom service revenue was 7.9 per cent higher at €1.5 billion.
Indeed, Vodafone Ghana CEO, Patricia Obo-Nai recently stated that the company saw huge growth in revenue on the back of Covid-19.
Read also confirmed Vodafone was on track to deliver its FY2022 guidance, with a “continued focus to optimize our portfolio, to accelerate the delivery of shareholder value”.
