Vodafone 2014 Annual Report Download - page 211

This document contains “forward-looking statements” within the
meaning of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
withrespect to the Group’s nancial condition, results of operations
andbusinesses and certain of the Group’s plans and objectives.
In particular, such forward-looking statements include statements
withrespect to:
a the Group’s expectations and guidance regarding its nancial and
operating performance, including statements contained within the
Chief Executive’s review on pages 12 to 13, statements regarding
the Group’s future dividends and the guidance statement for the
2015 nancial year and free cash ow guidance on page 13 and 39,
the performance of associates and joint ventures, other investments
and newly acquired businesses including CWW, KDG, Ono and
Neotel and expectations regarding the Project Spring organic
investment programme;
a intentions and expectations regarding the development of products,
services and initiatives introduced by, or together with, Vodafone
or by third parties, including new mobile technologies, such as the
Vodafone M-Pesa money transfer service, M2M connections,
Vodafone Red, cloud hosting, tablets and an increase in download
speeds, Vodafone One-Net, mWallet, Smartpass and 4G/3G services;
a expectations regarding the global economy and the Group’s
operating environment and market position, including future
marketconditions, growth in the number of worldwide mobile
phoneusers and other trends, including increased mobile data
usageand increased mobile penetration in emerging markets;
a revenue and growth expected from the Group’s enterprise and total
communications strategy, including data revenue growth, and its
expectations with respect to long-term shareholder value growth;
a mobile penetration and coverage rates, mobile termination rate
cuts, the Group’s ability to acquire spectrum, expected growth
prospects in the Europe and AMAP regions and growth in customers
and usage generally, and plans for sustained investment in high
speed data networks and the anticipated Group standardisation and
simplication programme;
a anticipated benets to the Group from cost efciency programmes;
a possible future acquisitions, including increases in ownership
in existing investments, the timely completion of pending acquisition
transactions and pending offers for investments, including licence
and spectrum acquisitions, and the expected funding required
to complete such acquisitions or investments;
a expectations and assumptions regarding the Group’s future revenue,
operating prot, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, free cash ow, depreciation
and amortisation charges, foreign exchange rates, tax rates and
capital expenditure;
a expectations regarding the Group’s access to adequate funding for
its working capital requirements and share buyback programmes,
and the Group’s future dividends or its existing investments; and
a the impact of regulatory and legal proceedings involving the Group
and of scheduled or potential regulatory changes.
Forward-looking statements are sometimes, but not always, identied
by their use of a date in the future or such words as “will”, “anticipates”,
“aims”, “could”, “may”, “should”, “expects”, “believes”, “intends”, “plans”
or“targets”. By their nature, forward-looking statements are inherently
predictive, speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they
relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the
future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results
and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied
by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not
limited to, the following:
a general economic and political conditions in the jurisdictions in which
the Group operates and changes to the associated legal, regulatory
and tax environments;
a increased competition, from both existing competitors and new
market entrants, including mobile virtual network operators;
a levels of investment in network capacity and the Group’s ability
to deploy new technologies, products and services in a timely
manner, particularly data content and services;
a rapid changes to existing products and services and the inability
ofnew products and services to perform in accordance with
expectations, including as a result of third-party or vendor
marketingefforts;
a the ability of the Group to integrate new technologies, products and
services with existing networks, technologies, products and services;
a the Group’s ability to generate and grow revenue from both voice and
non-voice services and achieve expected cost savings;
a a lower than expected impact of new or existing products, services
or technologies on the Group’s future revenue, cost structure and
capital expenditure outlays;
a slower than expected customer growth, reduced customer
retention,reductions or changes in customer spending and
increasedpricing pressure;
a the Group’s ability to expand its spectrum position, win 3G and 4G
allocations and realise expected synergies and benets associated
with 3G and 4G;
209Overview Strategy review Performance Governance Financials Additional information
Forward-looking statements