The Vodacom group has grown revenue 3,9% to R20,7-billion for the quarter ended 30 June 2017.
Group service revenue grew 1,7% to R17,1-billion.
South Africa’s revenue growth accelerated to 7,8% aided by stronger device sales; and service revenue growth for the local market was sustained at 5,6%.
However, international revenue declined 8,2%, with service revenue declining 8%. Allowing for currency fluctuations, revenue and service revenue grew by 8%, with underlying growth improved as a result of strong commercial execution.
Group data revenue increased 15,1% (normalised 18,3%) to R6,7-billion, representing 39% of service revenue.
During the quarter, the group added 2,5-million customers, 2,3-million of them in South Africa, to reach a total of almost 70-million customers across the group.
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO commentes: “The solid performance the group delivered in FY2017, continued into the first quarter of the current financial year.
“In South Africa, revenue growth accelerated to 7,8%, aided by increased smartphone device sales. We sustained South African service revenue growth of 5,6%, underpinned by the consistent and significant investment in our network infrastructure and IT systems, aimed at further enhancing the customer experience.
“Our pricing transformation strategy continues to deliver greater value for our 39 million South African customers. The 9,1% and 18,9% decline in effective voice and data prices respectively over the quarter reflects our commitment to driving down the cost to communicate in South Africa.
“As I have stated previously, there is more work to be done on this front, and we will be introducing additional measures this year to give greater control to customers by improving our out-of-bundle pricing.”
He adds that currency volatility is still negatively impacting the translation of international operations results – which has turned the corner. “We now have 30-million customers outside of South Africa, an increase of 12%.
“Following the phenomenal success in South Africa of our ‘Just 4 You’ platform, customers in all our operations are starting to enjoy the benefits of this personalised offers platform. We expect that this will contribute to the operational momentum in these markets.
“Following the shareholder approval of the acquisition of a stake in Safaricom on 18 July this will further boost contribution outside of South Africa.”
The group continues to make substantial investments in all its operations, Joosub says.
“We remain cognisant of the weaker economic conditions that prevail in South Africa as well as some of our larger markets and have put measures in place should these conditions deteriorate materially in these markets.”