Booming Vodafone unveils £4bn profit

Mobile phone giant Vodafone unveiled full year pre-tax profits of £4.03bn today after a period of rapid expansion worldwide.

The figure, which strips out one-off costs, represents an 87% improvement on the Newbury, Berkshire-based group’s performance a year earlier.

Vodafone, one of the biggest stocks on the FTSE-100, said it was benefiting from the acquisition last year of rival companies Mannesmann and AirTouch.

Vodafone said it remained the UK’s leading mobile phone operator with a market share of 28%, claiming one million customers more than its nearest rival.

The group said pre-pay products drove the growth in the UK market, with almost eight million customers at the end of March - around 65% of Vodafone’s UK customer base.

Vodafone said the latest generation of Internet-enabled mobile phones would be widely available by September or October.

The new product, known as GPRS, will deliver a range of data and is considered an important stepping stone to third generation services currently being developed by mobile phone firms.

Vodafone said the product - nicknamed ‘‘2.5 generation’’ - would be primarily aimed at the business market.

The group has invested heavily in global expansion in recent months, but chief executive Chris Gent said the company would now concentrate on margins.

He said today: ‘‘Acquisition activity should be less than it has been in the last two or three years.’’

His comments come amid increasing investor concern about Vodafone’s share price, which has dipped from 300p last year to 195¼p at the start of today’s session.

Analysts say the price has been depressed because too many shares have been issued to pay for the group’s rapid acquisition programme.