Telecom Lead India: Vodafone India has reported 3.7 percent decrease in revenue to £2.038 billion for the six months ended 30 September 2012.
In H1 of 2011, revenue of Vodafone India was £2.117 billion.
Operating profit in H1 was £84 million against operating loss of £9 million.
Capex decreased to £198 million from £329 million.
Vodafone India’s service revenue decreased 6.3 percent to £990 million from £1056 million.
Out of this, data revenue in H1 2012-13 was £85 million against £89 million in H1 2011-12.
Voice revenue reached £773 million from £808 million.
Vodafone India said customer growth in Q2 slowed as customer acquisition costs were reduced, lowering the level of multiple SIM activation, which had a positive effect on margin. At the same time, the anniversary of the introduction of SMS termination fees in Q2 of the prior financial year has also impacted second quarter growth.
In India, service revenue growth slowed to 11 percent in Q2, reflecting the impact of regulatory changes, the recognition of SMS termination revenue for the first time in the prior financial year and a less active market for new customer acquisitions.
For H1 as a whole, growth was impacted by the introduction of new regulations on the charging of access fees, and the marketing of integrated tariffs and value-added services. There was also a lower rate of growth at Indus Towers following a slowdown in tenancies from new entrants and a change in the pricing structure for some existing customers.
Data revenue growth of 12.4 percent was suppressed by the regulatory impact on marketing integrated tariffs and value-added services. At 30 September 2012 active data customers totaled 32 million including approximately 2.1 million 3G data customers.
Vodafone India’s EBITDA grew 27.2 percent, with 3 percent increase in EBITDA margin, driven by the increase in revenue, increased operating cost efficiency and the impact of lower customer acquisition costs, partially offset by increased interconnection costs.
Vodafone’s global revenue declined by 4.6 percent including a 9.7 percentage point adverse impact from foreign exchange rate movements, particularly the Indian rupee and the South African rand.
Vodafone said margins at Vodacom and in India made excellent progress as a result of focused cost control and increasing scale benefits, although this was partially offset at the regional level by weaker margins in Australia.
Its emerging markets operations have continued to grow strongly, led by Vodacom, India and Turkey. Vodafone has sustained a significant level of investment in emerging markets, which has translated into strong market share gains and improving margins in many of these businesses.
The British company posted a 1.4 percent fall in group organic service revenue in the second quarter due to the sharp slowdown in its southern European business.
