For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – November 12, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), Telefonica (TEF), Deutsche Telekom (DT), France Telecom (FTE) and Verizon (VZ).
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Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:
Vodafone Profit Leaps, Lifts Savings
Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), the largest wireless carrier in the world by revenue, has announced interim results for fiscal year 2010 with adjusted net income of £4.58 billion (US$7.3 billion) increasing 15% year over year from £3.99 billion (US$6.4 billion) reported a year ago, driven by favorable exchange rate movements and reduced tax. Adjusted earnings exclude one-time items such as impairment losses.
The telecom giant reported consolidated revenues of £21.8 billion (US$34.8 billion) for the period, representing a 9.3% year over year growth. Favorable exchange rate (euro-sterling) swings and net impact of merger and acquisition initiatives contributed to this growth. Excluding these impacts (organic basis), revenue declined 3% year over year.
Group service revenue declined 2.6% year over year on an organic basis to £20.5 billion (US$32.7 billion), primarily due to weaker contributions from European markets as recessionary conditions curbed demand for wireless services. Adjusted EBITDA increased 2.9% year over year to £7.5 billion (US$12 billion) driven by cost control.
Revenues for the European segment increased 3% year over year (down 5.1% on organic basis) to £14.9 billion (US$23.8 billion). Service revenue in Europe declined 4.5% organically as growth in Italy and the Netherlands was more than offset by decreases across Spain, Germany and the UK due to a weaker economy, regulatory pressure and intense competition.
Decline in voice revenue continues to offset growth in data. Revenue in Germany and the UK remains under pressure due to mobile termination rate (inter-operator fees) cuts. Vodafone is also losing customers in the UK as subscribers switch to its major rival Telefonica’s (TEF) O2 which is marketing iPhone in the UK.
Moreover, Deutsche Telekom (DT) and France Telecom (FTE) have recently finalized an agreement to combine their UK units, which will create the largest mobile carrier in the UK.
This segment posted revenues of £3.7 billion (US$5.9 billion), up 36% year over year. Organically, service revenue fell 3.2% as consistent growth at Vodacom (South Africa) and increase in subscriber count were partly offset by weak contributions from Romania and Turkey. Service revenue at Vodacom increased 4.2% on an organic basis as a result of healthy subscriber accretion.
Asia Pacific & Middle East segment continues to perform in line with expectation. Revenue surged 15.9% year over year (11.3% organically) to £3.1 billion (US$4.9 billion), driven by continued strong growth in India , the single biggest contributor to organic revenue growth. Service revenue in India increased 20.5% organically boosted by roughly 55% growth in wireless customer base amid intense price competition.
During the six-month period, Vodafone registered roughly 20.6 million net new mobile connections across its operations, bringing the total subscriber base to 323.3 million (83.5% represented by prepaid). India continues to be a key driver for subscriber growth with a net addition of 14 million customers in the first six months of fiscal 2010.
In Europe, the company registered a net loss of 262,000 subscribers during the half-year period. Verizon’s (VZ) mobile unit, Verizon Wireless, in which Vodafone holds a 45% stake, however, posted a net addition of 1.1 million customers.
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