Mobile giant Vodafone’s (LON:VOD) revenues dropped again as its main European operations all saw sales fall, though the rate was slower than previously.
Service revenues in the three months to December were 6.3% lower at £9.2bn with its core Europe business seeing a decline of 7.1% to £6bn and the other regions falling by 3.6%.
Adverse currency movements caused much of this weakness and the underlying performance was much more encouraging said Vittorio Colao, chief executive.
Group organic service revenue rose by 1.4%, or 2.1% stripping out mobile termination costs, or a sixth consecutive quarter of improvement
Highlights were improving trends in South Africa, Germany and Italy, said Colao, with strong growth in data usage reflecting significant investments in 4G and fibre Vodafone had made in recent years.
Guidance for the current year to March was maintained at £11.7bn to £12bn for underlying profits [EBITDA] and free cash flow to be positive after all capex, and before the impact of M&A, spectrum purchases and restructuring costs.
Shares rose a touch to 213.6p.