Vodafone loss doubles on India woes

AFP, LONDON: British mobile phone giant Vodafone yesterday said its first-half net loss doubled to more than 5.0 billion euros owing to a huge writedown for its Indian unit.
But a return to growth for its European operations helped Vodafone to post a hefty underlying profit, albeit slightly smaller compared with a year earlier.
Vodafone said its loss after tax soared to 5.1 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in the six months to the end of September compared with a net loss of 2.5 billion euros one year earlier.
Vodafone said it was hit by a gross impairment charge of 6.4 billion euros—or 5.0 billion euros after tax—“in respect of the group’s investment in India”.
“Competition in India has increased in the year, reducing revenue growth and profitability,” Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao said in the results statement.
“We have responded to this changing competitive environment by strengthening our data and voice commercial offers and by focusing our participation in the recent spectrum auction on acquiring frequencies in the more successful and profitable areas of the country,” he added.
Stripping out the exceptional hit from India as well as interest payments, Vodafone posted pre-tax profit of 7.9 billion euros for the first half, a drop of 1.7 per cent compared with one year earlier.

Vodafone loss doubles on India woes

AFP, LONDON: British mobile phone giant Vodafone yesterday said its first-half net loss doubled to more than 5.0 billion euros owing to a huge writedown for its Indian unit. But a return to growth for its European operations helped Vodafone to post a hefty underlying profit, albeit slightly smaller compared with a year earlier. Vodafone said its loss after tax soared to 5.1 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in the six months to the end of September compared with a net loss of 2.5 billion euros one year earlier. Vodafone said it was hit by a gross impairment charge of 6.4 billion eurosor 5.0 billion euros after taxin respect of the groups investment in India. Competition in India has increased in the year, reducing revenue growth and profitability, Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao said in the results statement. We have responded to this changing competitive environment by strengthening our data and voice commercial offers and by focusing our participation in the recent spectrum auction on acquiring frequencies in the more successful and profitable areas of the country, he added. Stripping out the exceptional hit from India as well as interest payments, Vodafone posted pre-tax profit of 7.9 billion euros for the first half, a drop of 1.7 per cent compared with one year earlier.