Vodafone boosts profits guidance

Vodafone upped it guidance on full-year profits today as emerging markets and the UK and Ireland helped it overcome tougher conditions in southern Europe.

The mobile phone giant now expects operating profits for the full year to be in the upper half of the £11bn-to-£11.8bn range estimated earlier this year.

The upgrade follows a 2.2% rise in revenues to £23.5bn in the six months to September 30. Operating profits of £6bn were up 4.4%.

Vodafone Ireland had 2.22 million mobile customers and a total base of 2.45 million customers in the quarter ended September 30. Vodafone Ireland's total customer base increased by almost 17,000 customers in the quarter.

The company said it had seen a five-fold increase in pay as you go data usage in the last 18 months, largely due to the availability of a broad range of affordable smartphones and a more robust network experience for data users.

A total of 1.46 billion texts were sent by Vodafone Ireland customers in the quarter

In the UK, where the company has recently announced price hikes, revenues were 2.1% higher after the boom in smartphone use caused data revenues to jump by a fifth.

Chief executive Vittorio Colao said: “We are gaining share in most of our major markets.”

Shares opened around 3% higher today.