Vodafone rings up profits of £10bn

Mobile phone giant Vodafone reported annual profits of £10bn (€14.9bn) today after sales increased by 10% during the year to £33.6bn (€50bn).

The underlying figure, which was broadly in line with City forecasts, was achieved after Vodafone added 13.7 million new customers worldwide.

Accounting charges of £15.2bn (€22.7bn) – in relation to acquisitions made in recent years – meant the group’s bottom-line loss for the year to March 31 was £5.05bn (€7.5bn), an improvement on the £6.21bn (€9.3bn) seen a year earlier.

Chief executive Arun Sarin, who took over from long-time boss Sir Christopher Gent last year, described the results as a "strong operational performance''.

He pledged to return £3bn (€4.5bn) of cash to shareholders – on top of a previous £1bn (€1.5bn) share buyback programme and the £1.4bn (€2.1bn) offered today following a 20% rise in the company’s final dividend to 1.0780p per share.

The latest share buyback comes after Vodafone missed out in the £21.5bn (€32bn) race earlier this year to buy AT&T Wireless of the United States.

As well as strong customer growth, Vodafone said “escalating” take-up of data services had driven the double-digit growth in revenues for the year.