Vodafone’s Irish pre-tax profits drop to €117m

Pre-tax profits at the Irish arm of mobile phone giant Vodafone last year declined by 14% to €117.3m, new figures show.

Accounts just filed with the Companies Office show that Vodafone Ireland Ltd recorded the €19.5m drop after revenues marginally slipped by 1.3% from €1.031bn to €1.018bn in the 12 months to the end of March 31 last.

The firm, now led by Cork native Anne O’Leary, paid a dividend of €150m to its parent last year following a payout of €60m in fiscal 2012.

The firm is the market leader in Ireland in relation to mobile phone customers with 2.2m at the end of March last and last year recorded a 29%, or 227,000 increase in the number of smart-phone users, with 1m customers now using a smart-phone.

Overall, the firm has a total customer base of 2.4m that includes 248,700 fixed-line customers — a 3.8% year-on-year increase in that sector.

The firm also recorded a 5.8% year-on-year growth in contract subscribers going up by 43,000.

According to the directors’ report “Vodafone performed well over the course of the year despite the challenging operating environment.”

The company’s monthly average revenue per user increased marginally to €31.40 in the quarter.

The company’s operating profits dropped marginally from €118.5m to €114.2m.