Vodacom Group has reported an almost 37% year-on-year jump in revenue to R35.7-billion in the quarter ended 30 June, driven higher by its acquisition of Vodafone Egypt. Rand depreciation also helped lift the quarterly performance.

International service revenue climbed by 23.8%, driven by data revenue growth and the weaker rand, while Vodafone Egypt grew service revenue by 27.6% in local currency on the back of financial services revenue that more than doubled.

Group service revenue growth including Vodafone Egypt on a pro forma basis came in at 9%, at the higher end of its medium-term target.

“A number of encouraging trends were evident in Vodacom Group’s first-quarter performance, despite the ongoing uncertainty impacting global markets and economies,” said CEO Shameel Joosub in notes alongside the financial update.

“These include strong service revenue growth in local currency by Vodafone Egypt, Vodacom South Africa’s encouraging data and fixed performance, strong financial services growth, and the expansion of M-Pesa’s ecosystem into new service offerings, including merchants.”

In South Africa, Vodacom has spent R4-billion in four years on mitigating the impact of load shedding on its network. Joosub said this investment “continues to pay dividends”.

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“We now invest more than R11-billion/year into our South Africa infrastructure alone, which has resulted in industry-leading network availability during elevated levels of power outages and ultimately contributed to the 3.9% increase in service revenue in our largest market, he said.

Financial services

Revenue from new services, including financial and digital services, fixed fibre, and the internet of things, accounts for almost a fifth of the group’s total revenue, and is “on track to reach our target contribution of 25-30% over the medium term”.

“Financial services remains a clear strategic priority for the group and produced a 46.2% increase in revenue to surpass the R3-billion mark in a quarter for the first time. This was supported by a strong performance in South Africa and by M-Pesa, which remains Africa’s largest mobile money platform by transaction value, and its new services in particular such as loans and merchant services.”

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Combined with financial services in Vodafone Egypt and Safaricom, the group’s mobile money platforms processed US$360.6-billion in the past 12 months, up 5.8%. In South Africa, Vodacom’s “super app”, VodaPay, reached 6.7 million downloads. – © 2023 NewsCentral Media