OREANDA-NEWS. May 22, 2012. Robust financial performance in a difficult environment. Group revenue up 1.2% to Ј46.4 billion; full year organic service revenue growth +1.5%; Q4 +2.3%
EBITDA down 1.3% at Ј14.5 billion; EBITDA margin 31.2%, down 0.8 percentage points (0.6 percentage points before restructuring costs)
Verizon Wireless service revenue up 7.3%; our share of profits up 9.3% to Ј4.9 billion
Adjusted operating profit at Ј11.5 billion, up 2.5% on an organic basis
Gain on disposal of investments of Ј3.5 billion1 and impairment charges of Ј4.0 billion
Free cash flow Ј6.1 billion after capex of Ј6.4 billion
Final dividend per share of 6.47 pence, giving total dividends per share for the year of 13.52 pencet


Continued strategic progress

Service revenue growth driven by focus on data (+22.2%), enterprise (+2.2%) and emerging markets (India +19.5% , Vodacom +7.1%, Turkey +25.1%)
Smartphone penetration in Europe 26.9%, +8.3 percentage points year-on-year; 43.2% of consumer contract revenue in our major European markets from integrated tariffs in Q4
Ј14.8 billion raised from disposals since September 2010, of which Ј6.8 billion committed to share buybacks – programme now 91% complete
Ј2.9 billion income dividend received from Verizon Wireless (‘VZW’), of which Ј2.0 billion was paid out as a special dividend to Vodafone shareholders

Guidance for the 2013 financial year
On an underlying basis, we expect growth in adjusted operating profit and stability in free cash flow
Adjusted operating profit expected to be in the range of Ј11.1billion to Ј11.9 billion, reflecting the weaker euro offset by continued profit growth from VZW
Free cash flow expected to be in the range of Ј5.3 billion to Ј5.8 billion, reflecting the weaker euro and the loss of the dividend from SFR

Vittorio Colao, Group Chief Executive, commented:

“Our focus on the key growth areas of data, emerging markets and enterprise is positioning us well in a difficult macroeconomic environment. Our commercial performance and our ability to leverage scale continue to be strong, enabling us to gain or hold market share in most of our key markets, and reduce the rate of margin decline. Our robust cash generation and the dividend received from Verizon Wireless have enabled us to translate this operational success into good returns for shareholders.

“Our goal over the next three years is to continue to strengthen our technology and commercial platforms through reliable and secure high speed data networks, significantly enhanced customer service across all channels, and improved data pricing models, to enrich customers’ experience and maximise our share of value in the markets in which we operate.”