Vodafone: upbeat for 2019/2020 after returning to profit

(CercleFinance.com) - Vodafone has raised its 2019/2020 outlook on the back of strong first-half results, which saw the British phone company return to profit at the operating level.


The company said it now expects full-year adjusted EBITDA of between 14.8 billion and 15 billion euros, compared to an earlier target range of 13.8 billion - 14.2 billion euros.

This positive outlook has boosted Vodafone's shares by 0.8% to 161.6 pence in early trading today.

For the six months ended 30 September, the group's revenue rose by 0.4% to 21.9 billion euros.

First-half organic service revenue inched up 0.3% as it returned to growth (+0.7%) in the second quarter, supported by improvements in South Africa, Spain and Italy.

Vodafone also cited "solid" retail performance in Germany and strong commercial acceleration in the UK.

As a result, its operating profit reached 577 millions euros, from a loss of over 2 billion euros in the same period a year ago.

However, the financial loss over the period amounted to 1.9 billion euros, primarily reflecting losses relating to Vodafone Idea, following an adverse judgement by the Supreme Court in India.

Copyright (c) 2019 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.