Vodafone reported a 12.7 percent drop in net profit for the year to March 31, blaming economic conditions in Europe.
The operator reported revenue of
The loss was swelled by a
The company recorded a
The economic environment in Europe is set to remain very difficult over the next year, Vodafone said, with weak consumer demand, a harsh regulatory backdrop and ongoing competition creating material barriers to growth.
Today, about
However, Vodafone had a strong year in emerging markets. Its biggest such operations, in southern Africa, India and Turkey, saw organic growth in service revenue of 7.1 percent, 19.5 percent and 25.1 percent, respectively.
Vodafone expects these and its other businesses in emerging markets to represent an increasing proportion of revenue and profit and in the coming years, it said.
Another are of growth is machine-to-machine communications. Growth in this sector driven by the automotive and utilities sectors, and the number of SIMs used for this purpose have increased from 5.3 million to 7.8 million year-on-year.
In Europe, 26.9 percent of Vodafone customers now have smartphones, and 44.9 percent of its contract customers.
As a result of these changes, Vodafone's data revenue grew from
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