Vodafone Q1 revenue up 4.8% at 11.3 bn pounds

Global telecom giant Vodafone Group today reported a 4.8 per cent jump in revenues at 11.3 billion pounds for the April-June quarter, boosted by strong performance in emerging markets like India and Turkey.

In the year-ago period, the company had a revenue of 10.74 billion pounds, Vodafone said in a statement here.

Vodafone's service revenue increased by 4.9 per cent from the year-ago period to 10.6 billion pounds in the first quarter of 2010. On an organic basis, service revenue rose by 1.1 per cent.

 "These are the first quarterly results to show service revenue growth since the global recession impacted us. We have achieved these results through our continuing commercial approach in key European markets, and from strong growth in emerging markets like India, and our highest-ever quarterly revenue in Turkey," Vodafone chief executive officer Vittorio Colao said.

However, the world's largest mobile operator by revenues, did not disclose its profit figure in the quarter.

The company has witnessed robust growth in India, with revenue rising by 26.4 per cent at 954 million pounds in the June quarter. The company attributed its revenue growth to increase in customer base in India.

"Growth was driven by an increase in the customer base, with net additions for the quarter of 8.2 million, and increased usage per customer partially offset by ongoing competitive pressure on mobile voice pricing. The termination rate cut effective from April 2009 also contributed to the improvement," the company said.

Vodafone's service revenue grew by 13.7 per cent in India due to benefit from Indus Towers--the telecom masts business of all the leading GSM operators in India, representing an improvement on the previous quarter.

The overall revenue in the Asia-Pacific region and Middle East jumped 19.9 per cent to 1.88 billion pounds during the quarter under review, while revenue grew 29.8 per cent in Africa and Central Europe.

"India contributed around 80 per cent of the Asia Pacific region's organic service revenue growth," it added.

Meanwhile, Vodafone International Holdings BV has filed a writ in the Bombay High Court challenging the I-T department demand for thousands of crores in withholding tax from the company, confirming the government view that it has the jurisdiction to recover it from Vodafone on the Hutchison transaction in 2007.  The case is scheduled to be heard on August 2.