Vodafone predicts top end profits

3rd Feb 2011 07:43

Mobile phone titan Vodafone thinks full-year profit will be at the top end of the range following a third quarter that went pretty much as expected, driven by strong growth in India and parts of Europe. The company, which yesterday announced the departure of chairman Sir John Bond, reckons adjusted operating profit will be towards the upper end of the £11.8bn to £12.2bn range given in November.Group revenue grew 3.5% to £11.9bn during the three months ended 31 December as service revenue added 2.5% to £11bn, the fifth quarterly increase in a row.India grew service revenue by 16.7%, Turkey delivered a 31.7% improvement and the UK 7%, but Spain is still problem, down over 7% during the period.Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific was up 9.3% some 0.3 percentage points better than the quarter before, while Verizon Wireless in the US put in a 7% rise thanks to "good" net customer growth and higher data revenue led by smartphone sales. "This is the fifth successive quarter of service revenue growth improvement, with strong results from India, Turkey, the UK and Vodacom," chief executive Vittorio Colao said."In addition, Verizon Wireless continues to show strong momentum. Our performance has been driven by the effective execution of our strategy to strengthen our businesses and deliver growth, particularly in data services and emerging markets."