Quarterly update lifts Vodafone shares

The price of shares in FTSE 100 telecommunications giant Vodafone (LON:VOD) has increased by 5.53% to 134.43p (as of 13:25 GMT) after it returned to service revenue growth during the quarter ended 31st December. Total revenues were down by 4.7% relative to the same period of 2019, but a more modest 0.3% decline on an organic basis.

CEO Nick Read commented: “I am pleased the Group returned to service revenue growth in Q3 as a result of the continued commercial momentum across our business, including our largest market Germany. Our good trading performance underscores our confidence in the outlook for the full year. We have made further progress on our strategic priorities, including the IPO of Vantage Towers in early 2021, which remains firmly on track and will now include our 50% shareholding in the UK towers joint venture with Telefonica.

Our networks have successfully delivered another quarter of record data traffic as many countries continue to endure COVID-19 lockdowns and customers depend on our services. We have achieved this while further reducing our carbon footprint and we are making fast progress towards our important target of having our European networks wholly powered by renewable electricity by July this year.

I continue to be proud of the hard work of my colleagues, and that of the industry more broadly, who have kept societies connected and supported key sectors such as education and healthcare. Vodafone has now contributed over €150 million since the start of the pandemic, through direct contributions and in-kind services to those in need, and we will continue to help society recover and build back stronger“.