Vodafone reports losses of £9.8bn, but insists performance is strong

By Alun Williams

Posted on 28 May 2003 at 10:12

Vodafone has reported losses of £9.8bn in its latest yearly results, but insists the underlying performance of the company is strong.

Unlike with mm02's recent losses, however, Vodafone has refused to write down the value of its 3G investments. The losses are caused instead by Vodafone writing down the value of previous telecom investments.

As with mmO2, the story from the telco is that the headline figures obscure a strong yearly performance. The Vodafone subscriber base has grown by 11 per cent and turnover has increased by a third. In particular, the company has emphasised the growth of its data services through Vodafone Live!, subscriptions for which topped one million in March.

Sir Christopher Gent, who was presenting his last set of results as CEO, was bullish. 'Today Vodafone has an unmatched global footprint and is now combining this strength with a range of services for customers which gives Vodafone a real competitive advantage,' he said. 'We are progressively building a brand ascendancy in mobile which is gaining recognition both within our industry and in the world at large. The continuing improvement in performance enables Vodafone to build new services for the future for our customers while continuing to grow returns for our shareholders.'

On the subject of 3G, the financial results revealed that J-Phone Vodafone, which now provides 3G services, had an 18 per cent market share in Japan. The company claims that 3,6000 operational 3G base stations now give coverage for 75 per cent of the population. It expects 13,000 base-stations to be rolled out before the end of the year to achieve 95 per cent population coverage. J-Phone Vodafone was the first operator to launch 3G services, starting 20 December 2002.

Last year - report - Vodafone reported the largest losses in UK corporate history. The company recorded a deficit of £13.5bn in its yearly results, which included another £6bn write-off of investments in other telecom firms.

The latest results cover the year ending 31 March 2003.