Vodacom Group said on Wednesday that it hoping to accelerate its earnings growth over the next five years – and is telling investors to expect an improved performance in the second half of this decade.

The group, which owns South Africa’s largest mobile network operator, said in a statement to investors, issued via the JSE’s stock exchange news service, that it is hosting an investor briefing session on Wednesday at which it will provide an update on Vision 2030, its strategy for the next five years.

“As part of this strategy, Vodacom will communicate an ambition to accelerate group Ebitda growth into double digits,” it said, referring to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation – a measure of operating profitability and a keenly watched financial metric in the telecommunications sector.

“This represents an upgrade from the existing medium-term target framework of high single-digit Ebitda growth,” Vodacom, which is controlled by the UK’s Vodafone Group, added in its statement.

The group’s shares were trading 1% higher on the JSE at 9.30am on Wednesday at R119.93 each. They have added 28% over the past year.

However, over a three-year horizon, the shares are still down 20%. This is the result of an extended period of underperformance between April 2022 and April 2024, during which time the share lost more than half its value, declining from above R160/share to less than R80/share.

Read: Vodacom processing R23-billion/day in mobile money transactions

Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub recently look advantage of the uptick in the share price to offload R20-million in shares. He sold the shares at an effective average price per Vodacom share of just above R120. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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