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R6,8bn windfall for Vodacom shareholders
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16 May 2011
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Vodacom has shrugged off the pressures of a maturing mobile market and falling wholesale call tariffs between networks to turn in a red-hot set of financial results in the 12 months to 31 March 2011, boosting headline earnings per share by 28,6 percent and combined dividend pay-outs for the full financial year by 61 percent to R6,8bn.
Helped by a lower effective tax rate, reduced capital expenditure, cost-containment measures and strong demand for mobile broadband, Vodacom, which is 65 percent held by the UKs Vodafone, grew its net profit margin from 7,2 percent to 13 percent in the year.
Group free cash flow rose 22,4 percent to R8,8bn, with the customer base climbing by 9 percent to 43,5m. Revenue from data was up 35,5 percent to R6,4bn on total revenue of R61,2bn.
Gateway, VodacomҒs pan-African business communications company, was the only big dampener on the results, with the mobile group forced to write down an...
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