Vodafone’s total European revenues increased by 10.1% year-on-year in the quarter ending December 31, 2019 thanks largely to its newly acquired Liberty Global assets.
They amounted to €8,970 million, compared to €8,148 million a year earlier, though the organic service revenue, excluding the assets, fell by 1.4%.
In its latest set of results the company notes that in Germany its TV customer base declined by 73,000 in the quarter, which was similar to the prior quarter.
Yet despite this, Unitymedia had 153,000 net cable additions and overall the group added 93,000 broadband customers.
Meanwhile, in Spain its commercial performance continued to recover, with the total TV subscriber base growing by 56,000. This was supported by its new TV and series offers and despite its decision last year not to renew football content rights.
Q3, ending December 31, was the first quarter of mobile contract, broadband and TV customer base growth since Q3 FY18.
Vodafone Group’s total revenues in the quarter ending December 31, 2019 amounted to €11,750 million (+6.8%), while the group service revenues were €9,733 million (0.8%).
Commenting on the results, group chief executive Nick Read said: “I am pleased with the pace at which we have executed our commercial and strategic priorities, which has allowed us to maintain our momentum in the quarter. Competition in Europe remains challenging, primarily in the value segment, however we continued to improve customer loyalty and to grow in broadband, and we achieved good growth in Africa. We expect a further gradual improvement in service revenue growth in Q4, led by Europe.
“We have recently announced the proposed sale of our stake in Vodafone Egypt, which simplifies the Group into two scaled regional platforms – Europe and sub-Saharan Africa – and reduces our net debt. We have also appointed the senior management team for our European TowerCo, and we are preparing for a potential IPO in early 2021.”
