The world’s largest mobile phone company reported full-year pre-tax profits of £8.7bn, compared to £4.2bn a year earlier, when the company was hit by £5.9bn of impairment charges.
The rise was largely due to the strong performance of the group’s operations in emerging markets.
However, Vodafone was knocked by a £2.3bn impairment charge in India where it is embroiled in an “intense” price war. The operator is also facing a much larger than expected bill for the latest mobile licenses in the country. The auction price of third generation, or 3G, licenses has increased to $3.4bn, far more than analyst expected.
Vodafone said it had achieved its £1bn cost-saving programme a year ahead of schedule, and will begin a new two-year £1bn saving programme.
The company increased its final dividend by 9pc to 5.65p, taking the full-year payment to 8.31p, a rise of 7pc. It said that it would target a dividend per share growth of 7pc a year for the next three years.
Jonathan Groocock, an analyst at Investec, said: “Vodafone has reported a decent set of full-year results with positive outlook yielding clear dividend returns to shareholders.”
2010-05-19
Smartphones double Vodafone's profits - Telegraph
via telegraph.co.uk
