MISRAND: Vodacom Group posted a 7.5 percent increase in its revenue to ZAR 80.01 billion for the year ended 31 March from ZAR 74.50 billion in the previous year, supported by strong demand for devices, particularly smartphones. Preliminary results show that service revenue increased 7.4 percent to ZAR 66.76 billion, underpinned by improved trends in voice revenue and data revenue growth of 28.5 percent. Data revenue contributed 31.9 percent of group service revenue, up from 26.7 percent a year ago. There was a slight decline in customers to 61.3 million as a result of customer registration requirements in its international operations.
EBITDA grew by 22.8 percent to ZAR 30.35 billion from ZAR 26.91 billion in 2015, while EBIT grew by 11.2 percent to ZAR 21.70 billion, with a 1.8 percentage point margin expansion to 37.9 percent. Net profit rose by 3.2 percent to ZAR 12.91 billion from ZAR 12.51 billion, and capital expenditure increased by 3.2 percent to ZAR 12.88 billion, focused on rapidly expanding LTE coverage and increasing data speeds.
Headline earnings per share (HEPS) was up 2.7 percent to ZAR 8.83, hit by remeasurement of foreign currency-denominated intergroup loans and one-off BEE charges. The final dividend per share is ZAR 4.00, taking the total dividend to ZAR 7.95 per share for the year.
In its international operations, service revenue increased by 16.2 percent with growth in all markets, and Vodacom Lesotho achieved revenue of over ZAR 1 billion for the first time. The international operations continued to benefit from voice revenue growth of 14.0 percent as well as 31.9 percent growth in data revenue, driven by continued network investment.
International M-Pesa revenue continues to grow strongly at 19.3 percent, fuelled by expansion of the distribution channel and a growing ecosystem. The group added 1.2 million customers, increasing the number of active customers to 9.2 million, an increase of 15.4 percent from the prior year.
In Tanzania, M-Pawa (savings and loan product) is gaining traction with 1.6 million customers actively using the service. Enterprise service revenue (including mobile) grew 31.1 percent. International fixed-line and business managed services grew by 18.5 percent, and contributed 53.0 percent to group fixed-line and business managed services.
International EBITDA grew 31.2 percent to ZAR5 385 million, contributing 17.7 percent to group EBITDA. The EBITDA margin increased from 26.1 percent to 29.3 percent, with margin improvement across all operations. EBITDA was positively impacted by stronger service revenue as well as cost efficiency initiatives of ZAR 705 million, partly offset by significant currency devaluation in Tanzania and Mozambique.
