Vodafone reports ex-EU shift in business focus

Mobile phone giant Vodafone underlined the shifting economic landscape today after revealing it now had more customers outside of western Europe.

The group counted 112 million customers in its Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Pacific (EMAPA) region at the end of last year, compared with 109 million in western Europe.

More than four million new subscribers in booming India helped drive the growth in the emerging economies in the last quarter of 2007. Vodafone’s customer total in the country stood at nearly 40 million at the year end.

Analysts said emerging markets had “stolen the show” as the mobile phone operator unveiled its trading figures for the last three months of 2007.

India posted year-on-year revenue growth of 56%, while income from Egypt and Turkey also rose by more than a quarter in the period.

Worldwide revenues for the group in the three month period were slightly better than expected, at £9.2bn (€12.3bn), up 4.4% organically.

European revenue was up to £6.7bn (€9bn), ahead 2% organically, while the emerging regions enjoyed a 13% organic revenues boost to £2.5bn (€3.3bn).

In Ireland, Vodafone added 50,000 new customers to its base between September and December, 2007. The group now has 2,265,000 customers here, recording 1.5 million minutes of mobile talk time.

In the UK, Vodafone added 488,000 net customers in the final quarter of last year, taking its UK subscriber total to 18.5 million. They brought in revenues of £1.24bn (€1.6bn) for the firm, up 5.9% from the year before.

Mobile phone usage across Britain during the last quarter went up to 9.43 million voice minutes, a rise of nearly 16% on the year. Howeber, UK churn – the proportion of customers leaving their contracts – crept up in the quarter to 15.6%, from 15.3%.

Group chief executive Arun Sarin said the group had “sustained” its recent momentum, adding that he would maintain a “rigorous” focus on costs.

Vodafone shares have risen around a third in the past 12 months after the business outperformed City profit forecasts. The stock was down slightly today in a selling market, off 0.8p to 176.1p.