Vodafone results get good reception

The price of shares in FTSE 100 telecoms firm Vodafone (LON:VOD) rose by 3.06% to 123.19p (as of 11:50 GMT) despite group revenues for the half year ended 30th September dropping by 2.3%. The company said that positive momentum had been checked by Covid-19 but the company recorded a profit for the period and maintained its interim dividend.

CEO Nick Read commented: “Today’s results underline increased confidence in our full year outlook. We are reporting a resilient first half performance and we continue to see good commercial momentum across the Group. The results demonstrate the success of our strategic priorities to date, namely increasing customer loyalty, growing our fixed broadband base, driving digitisation to simplify the company and capture significant cost savings, and deliver 5G efficiently through network sharing.

COVID-19 and the reduction in roaming revenues, through the significant reduction in international travel, is currently obscuring our underlying commercial progress, with Q2 service revenue growing by 1.5% excluding roaming. We are now two years into our longer-term strategy to transform Vodafone into a business that enables a digital society, generating both sustainable growth and attractive returns. We are executing at pace, but there remains more to be done to achieve our goals”.