Vodafone Spain revenues down 3.8%, EBITDA up 16.3%in H1

 

Vodafone Spain saw its service revenues decline by 3.8% on an organic basis in its fiscal first half to September, as a recovery in its mobile business and continued positive momentum in fixed helped to offset the negative effect of handset financing and rising TV costs.

In total, service revenues fell to GBP 1.63 billion in the 6 months to September, down from GBP 1.75 billion a year earlier.

However, EBITDA rose 16.3% year-on-year, coupled with a 3.7% improvement in the EBITDA margin to 26.5%, which the operator attributed to strong cost control and synergies from last year's acquisition of broadband operator Ono.

In the mobile sector, Vodafone Spain's service revenues fell 8.1% year on year to GBP 1.04 billion, as an increase in the contract customer base failed to offset rising promotional costs. The company's mobile customer base fell to 14.19 million on 30 September from 14.78 million a year earlier, affected by aggressive cross-selling of mobile to TV customers by competitors such as Movistar (Telefonica) and Orange. Compared to June, the company added 92,000 new postpaid customers, while losing 7,000 prepaid users. 

Vodafone said its new commercial strategy on data, offering customers the opportunity to buy additional bundles for up to EUR 10 per month, has been very successful. The number of customers with smartphones reached just over 60%, and 90% of these had data subscriptions. The number of 4G customers grew to 4.3 million, with coverage reaching 80% of the Spanish population in September.

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