Vodafone has reported solid gains in its first quarter of the financial year of 2025 as chief executive Margherita Della Valle continues her bid to revitalise the telco’s stagnant share price.
The London-listed telecoms company posted a 2.8 per cent rise in total revenue to €9bn (£7.6bn), boosted by higher organic service revenue, though partially offset by “adverse” foreign exchange movements
Operating profit surged 42.9 per cent to €1.5 bn (£1.3bn), mostly driven by a €0.7bn (£589m) gain from Vodafone’s recent disposal of an 18 per cent stake in Indus Towers.
Under Della Valle’s leadership, Vodafone has divested its under-performing Italian and Spanish divisions to concentrate on stronger regions.
She has ruled out further major deals as part of her strategy to simplify and streamline the firm. But the telco has gradually been offloading stakes in infrastructure assets, including Indus Towers and Vantage Towers, in a bid to reduce its debt.
“Our performance in the first quarter is consistent with our full year guidance, which we reiterate today,” said Della Valle on Thursday. “We continue to deliver strong revenue growth in Africa and Turkey, whilst lower inflation is slowing revenue growth in Europe and accelerating Group EBITDAaL growth.”
Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone’s chief executive
She added: “During the last few months, we have announced the final step in reducing our stake in Vantage Towers to 50 per cent for €1.3 billion and commenced our €2 billion share buyback programme following the sale of Spain.
“We continue to progress our transactions in Italy and the UK as well as the broader transformation of Vodafone, focused on customer experience, Business growth and operational execution in Germany. The actions we are taking now will deliver improved performance and underpin the turnaround of Vodafone.”
Despite her efforts, the FTSE 100 stock is down around eight per cent over the past year.
Vodafone reiterated its full year guidance, forecasting adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation, and adjusted loss (EBITDAaL) of around €11bn (£9.3bn) and adjusted free cash flow of at least €2.4bn (£2bn). In 2024, Vodafone reported full year adjusted EBITDAaL of €11bn (£9.3bn).
Analysts project group revenue for 2025 to reach €37.3bn (£31.4 bn).
Vodafone is still awaiting a decision from the competition regulator on its proposed merger of its UK operations with Three UK.