Vodafone 2014 Annual Report Download - page 177

Vodacom’s mobile operations outside South Africa delivered strong
service revenue growth of 23.4%*, excluding Vodacom Business Africa,
driven by a larger customer base and increasing data take-up. M-Pesa
continues to perform well in Tanzania, with approximately 4.9 million
active users, and was launched in DRC in November 2012. During the
year Vodacom DRC became the rst operator to launch 3G services
in the DRC.
EBITDA grew by 10.1%*, with a 1.5* percentage point increase in EBITDA
margin, primarily driven by revenue growth in Vodacom’s mobile
operations outside South Africa and savings in network costs in South
Africa following investment in single RAN and transmission equipment.
Other AMAP
Organic service revenue grew by 3.8%* with growth in Turkey, Egypt,
Ghana and Qatar more than offset by revenue declines in Australia
and New Zealand. Service revenue in Turkey grew by 17.3%*, primarily
driven by growth in the contract customer base and an increase in data
revenue due to mobile internet and higher smartphone penetration.
Australia continued to experience steep revenue declines on the
back of ongoing service perception issues and a declining customer
base. There has been a strong focus on network improvement and
arresting the weakness in brand perception. In Egypt the launch
of value management initiatives, take-up of data services and the
increase in international incoming call volumes and rates drove
service revenue growth of 3.7%*, despite competitive pressures and
the uncertain political environment. Data revenue continued to show
strong growth of 29.6%* and xed line revenue grew by 29.0%*. In Qatar
service revenue grew by 29.8%*, driven by the growth in the customer
base, which is now over one million, supported by successful new
propositions. In Ghana, continued strong growth in the customer base
and the success of integrated tariffs led to service revenue growth
of 24.5%*.
EBITDA increased by 6.2%*, with EBITDA margin increasing by
0.5*percentage points with the impact of service revenue growth
in Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Ghana offsetting declines in Australia and
New Zealand.
Non-Controlled Interests
Verizon Wireless1
2013
£m
2012
£m
% change
£Organic
Revenue 21,972 20,187 8.8 7.8
Service revenue 19,697 18,039 9.2 8.1
Other revenue 2,275 2,148 5.9 5.2
EBITDA 8,831 7,689 14.9 13.6
Interest (25) (212) (88.2)
Tax213 (287) (104.5)
Group’s share of result
inVZW 6,500 4,953 31.2 29.8
In the United States VZW reported 5.9 million net mobile retail
connection3 additions in the year, bringing its closing mobile retail
connection base to 98.9 million, up 6.4%.
Service revenue growth of 8.1%* continued to be driven by the
expanding number of accounts and ARPA4 growth from increased
smartphone penetration and a higher number of connections
per account.
EBITDA margin improved, with efciencies in operating expenses
and direct costs partially offset by higher acquisition and retention
costs reecting the increased new connections and demand
for smartphones.
VZW’s net debt at 31 March 2013 totalled US$6.2 billion5 (2012:
US$6.4 billion5). During the year VZW paid a US$8.5 billion income
dividend to its shareholders and completed the acquisition of spectrum
licences for US$3.7 billion (net).
Notes:
1 All amounts represent the Group’s share based on its 45% equity interest, unless otherwise stated.
2 The Group’s share of the tax attributable to VZW relates only to the corporate entities held by the VZW
partnership and certain state taxes which are levied on the partnership. The tax attributable to the
Group’s share of the partnership’s pre-tax prot is included within the Group tax charge.
3 The denition of “connections” reported by VZW is the same as “customers” as reported by Vodafone.
4 Average monthly revenue per account.
5 Net debt excludes pending credit card receipts.
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