23 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2024
Strategic report
Governance
Financials
Other information
Germany: Underlying improvement offset by first MDU impact
Reported change %
Organic change 1 %
FY24 €m
FY23 €m
Total revenue
12,957 13,113 11,453 11,433 1,504 1,680 5,017 5,323 38.7% 40.6%
(1.2) 0.2 (5.8)
Service revenue Other revenue Adjusted EBITDAaL Adjusted EBITDAaL margin
0.2
(5.8)
Note: 1. Organic growth is a non-GAAP measure. See page 235 for more information.
Growth Total revenue decreased by 1.2% to €13.0 billion, driven by lower equipment revenue. Service revenue grew by 0.2% (Q3: 0.3%, Q4: 0.6%) as the contribution from higher broadband ARPU was largely offset by the cumulative impact of broadband and TV customer losses and lower regulated rates for terminating mobile calls. Growth improved in Q4, as higher consumer mobile ARPU and customer base growth was partially offset by a 0.9 percentage point impact from the end to bulk TV contracting in Multi Dwelling Units (‘MDUs’). Fixed service revenue increased by 0.3% (Q3: 1.0%, Q4: -0.2%) as broadband ARPU growth was partially offset by the impact of a lower broadband and TV customer base. The slowdown in fixed service revenue growth in Q4 was primarily driven by a 1.7 percentage point impact from changes to German TV laws. Mobile service revenue was stable year-on-year (Q3: -0.5%, Q4: +1.8%) as ARPU growth and higher roaming and visitor revenue were offset by a lower prepaid customer base and a reduction in mobile termination rates. Mobile service revenue growth in Q4 improved having lapped the renewal and rephasing of a large multi-year IoT contract last year, which had adversely impacted prior quarters. Mobile service revenue growth in Q4 was also supported by higher IoT project revenue, consumer contract ARPU growth, and a higher customer base. Vodafone Business service revenue was stable year-on-year (Q3: -1.9%, Q4: +1.0%) as good demand for fixed services, including cloud and security, was offset by a strong prior year performance in public sector and lower IoT revenue following the renewal of a major multi-year IoT automotive contract in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDAaL declined by 5.8%, reflecting a 2.7 percentage point impact from higher energy costs. The decline also reflected higher wage, inflation-linked lease costs, and customer acquisition costs, as well as investments made to support the MDU transition. The Adjusted EBITDAaL margin was 1.9 percentage points lower year-on-year at 38.7%. Customers During the year, we re-engineered our commercial model and launched a number of new products and services to better serve our customers. In broadband, we restored our market leading network quality position. This was reflected in four major independent network test results from Connect, CHIP, Computer BILD and nPerf where we achieved leading quality and reliability scores. Reflecting inflationary pressure, we have increased the price of our broadband packages. As expected, this impacted our commercial performance with our broadband customer base declining by 392,000 during the year. Our converged customer base increased by 99,000 to 2.4 million. Ahead of changes to German TV laws, which take effect from July 2024 and change the practice of bulk TV contracting in MDUs, we have started migrating end users to new contracts at scale. Based on our experience to date, we expect to retain around 50% of the 8.5 million MDU TV households. At the end of March 2024, we had already actively retained 1.9 million households. Our total TV customer base declined by 1.0 million during the year, primarily due to the MDU transition, which began in the last quarter of FY24. We added 239,000 new mobile contract customers in FY24, supported by our new propositions, the ongoing optimisation of sales channels and an improved performance of Vodafone’s own brands. We also added 8.0 million IoT connections, driven by continued strong demand from the automotive sector. During the year, we agreed a long-term national roaming partnership with 1&1. We expect to deliver mobile coverage nationwide to 1&1’s customers from the second half of the 2024 calendar year. Our fibre-to-the-home (‘FTTH’) joint venture, OXG Glasfaser, started its network rollout during the year, initially in Neuss, Düsseldorf, Marburg and Kassel. OXG Glasfaser will deploy FTTH to up to seven million homes over a six-year period and is complementary to our upgrade plans for our existing hybrid fibre cable network.
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