Vodafone pays out dividend as group revenue grows three per cent

Vodafone also reduced big losses during the last financial year

Vodafone has held onto its dividend for 2019 as the group reported improved figures for the financial year ending in March.

The operator paid out a dividend of 7.89 pence per share or just over £2 billion to its shareholders.

It follows rivals BT/EE suspending its dividend until 2022 last week.

Vodafone’s overall Group revenue grew three per cent to £39.45 billion, while pre-tax profit hit £697 million.

There was also encouragement as Vodafone reduced its loss for the financial year to £399 million. This figure was £6.6 billion during 2019.

Operating profit also improved considerably, growing from a loss of £834 million to £3.5 billion.

Adjusted EBITDA grew to £12.98 billion, up 2.6 per cent from the year before.

However net debt grew 56 per cent to £37 billion, following the Group’s purchase of Liberty Global assets in Germany.

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Vodafone Group chief executive Nick Read commented: “Vodafone has delivered a good financial performance – growing revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow – whilst building strong commercial momentum through the year and executing at pace on our strategic priorities.

“We have also continued to invest in our fixed and mobile Gigabit network infrastructure and digital services, to provide faster speeds for our customers, as well as successfully managing the recent surges in demand.”

Edison Investment Research global head of TMT Dan Ridsdale called the results “stable”.

“The results will not reflect a significant impact from the coronavirus outbreak,” said Ridsdale.

“Vodafone’s relative resilience to the lock-down has provided short term relief, but most investors eyes are now focused on which stocks will perform best as the world progressively moves out of lock-down and life returns to a new normal.”