Vodafone revenue outlook drops

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In an interim management statement the telecoms giant said that its revenue was up 1.7 per cent organically to £9.8 billion in the first quarter. The company said its data revenue grew organically by 29.4 per cent to £664 million.

Vodafone said that its total communications services now represented 15 per cent of its revenue and added that its proportionate mobile customer base was up 8.5 million in the quarter to 269 million.

In Europe the group saw service revenue decline organically by 0.2 per cent. The group's Indian operations however saw total revenue growth of over 50 per cent.

Following its first quarter results, Vodafone said it expected total revenue for the year to be at the bottom end of its £39.8 billion to £40.7 billion outlook range. However the group said operating profit would still be in the £11 billion to £11.5 billion range thanks to a focus on cost reduction.

Arun Sarin, Chief Executive of Vodafone, said, "Notwithstanding this more challenging operating environment, we continue to benefit from a diversity of assets and services, with strong revenue growth in EMAPA and another good quarter of data revenue growth offsetting weakness in Spain. Whilst we expect revenue around the bottom of the outlook range, our continued focus on cost reduction enables us to reiterate our operating profit and cash flow guidance for the year."