Increased profit for Vodafone

Newbury-based mobile phone operator makes £11.8bn

NEWBURY-based mobile phone operater Vodafone has announced profits of £11.8bn for the year ending March 31, an increase of 3.1 per cent.

The company increased revenue by 3.2 per cent to £45.9bn.

Vodafone expects its profit for the 2012 financial year to be in the region of between £11bn and £11.8bn, reflecting in the loss of its share of the profts from French operator SFR, following its disposal of its 44 per cent interest in the company.

Vodafone group chief executive Vittorio Colao said: "The past year has seen further strong performances in our key revenue growth areas of data, emerging markets and enterprise, and we have gained or held our market share in most of our key markets.

"Continuing network investment is an important differentiator for Vodafone, improving the customer experience and giving us leadership in smartphone penetration and in customer take-up of data plans.

"We enter the new financial year well-positioned to deliver further value to our shareholders."

Vodafone is to pay a divident of 6.05p per share, an increase of 7.1 per cent.