Robust quarter for Vodacom

BUSINESS

Vodacom Group’s revenues rose by 12.2% to pass USD2.3 billion, with subscriber figures passing the 52 million mark.

In releasing the group’s results for the quarter ending 31 December 2011 today, Vodacom Group CEO Pieter Uys said: “This was a good quarter for Vodacom, with a record increase in our customers of five million pushing us past the 50 million customer milestone.

Our International operations maintained the positive momentum and accounted for more than 40% of the increase in our total customers. Network investment continued to be a major focus with on-going upgrades to our transmission and radio access networks supporting the 41% increase in Group data customers. Vodacom now delivers data connectivity to nearly 14 million people.”

In the Group’s operations outside of home base South Africa, the quarter saw customers up 30.2% to 21.2 million, adding 2.2 million in the quarter.

In Tanzania, customer growth of 34.1% was supported by promotional offerings and improved distribution. Tanzania also saw strong growth of M-Pesa users, with 2.7 million active users.

Vodacom noted: “The M-Pesa system processed transactions in Tanzania worth more than USD400 million during the month of December alone. M-Pesa now accounts for 8.5% of Tanzania’s service revenue, compared to 3.1% a year ago.”

 In that country, The Group said its capital investment in Mozambique, smarter pricing and a specific focus on distribution underpinned a 16.9% increase in customers.

Despite uncertain political conditions during the quarter, the DRC delivered a good performance and also received a boost from the regulated minimum price.

The report added: “While we are encouraged by the strong revenue growth in the quarter, we remain focused on tackling the increased competition in all our geographies and also remain alert to fragile global economic conditions.”