Vodacom's Egypt acquisition spurs 29.1% surge in Group service revenue

• Vodacom, a mobile network operator, has reported increased service revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. Vodacom South Africa generated R61.6 billion ( $3.36 billion), in service revenue, up 2.6% from the previous year.

• Vodacom revealed that R11.1 billion ($606 million) was invested in network resilience, new spectrum assets, and IT platforms. Previously, it invested R11.17 billion ($639 million) in 2022/23 and R11.15 billion ($628 million) the year before.

• Vodacom acknowledged reaching over 200 million customers, stating that the milestone occurred in a year when the company celebrated three decades of operation.

Vodacom stated that its Egypt acquisition, combined with South Africa's performance as its largest market, resulted in a 29.1% increase in the group's service revenue. Thus, Egypt now serves 48.3 million customers, up 6.2%. It saw a 10.9% increase in data customers, which led to a 41.8% increase in data traffic.

Consequently, Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO said, “We are encouraged by the meaningful steps taken by Egypt's government to support economic growth through foreign direct investment and foreign exchange liquidity. Pleasingly, the dividend declared by Egypt to the Group in the first half of the financial year was repatriated to South Africa in March 2024.”

Integrating new services, including the consumer contract segment and prepaid mobile data, fueled revenue growth. New services, including digital and financial, fixed and IoT, contributed 20.0% of group service revenue. In South Africa, new services increased by 11.2%, accounting for R10.2 billion ($556 million), or 16.6% of service revenue.

Its financial services customers increased by 11.8% to 78.9 million, with an annual transaction value of $381.2 billion. 

“The 7.9% service revenue increase from financial services to R3.2 billion [$174 million] was largely driven by our insurance business and payments, while Airtime Advance remained an important enabler of digital inclusion,” the CEO said.

Furthermore, it reported a 10.8% drop in headline earnings of 846 cents per share (cps), impacted by events such as several start-up losses in Ethiopia, higher finance and energy costs, and lower exchange rates.