Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2025 169
Strategic report
Governance
Financials
Other information
The Group’s cash outflow for leases in the year ended 31 March 202 5 was €3, 770 million (2024 : €3, 567 million, 2023 : €3,0 67 million) and absent significant future changes in the volume of the Group’s activities or other strategic or structural changes to the Group resulting in the use of more or fewer owned assets, this level of cash outflow from leases would be expected to continue for future periods, subject to contractual price increases. The future cash outflows included within lease liabilities are shown in the maturity analysis below. The maturity analysis only includes the reasonably certain payments to be made; cash outflows in these future periods will likely exceed these amounts as payments will be made on optional periods not considered reasonably certain at present and on new leases entered into in future periods. The Group’s leases for customer connectivity are normally either under regulated access or network sharing or similar preferential access arrangements and as a result the Group normally has significant flexibility over the term it can lease such connections for; generally the notice period required to cancel the lease is less than the notice period included in the service contract with the end customer. As a result, the Group does not have any significant cash exposure to optional periods on customer connectivity as the Group can cancel the lease when the service agreement ends. In some circumstances the Group is committed to minimum spend amounts for connectivity leases, which are included within reported lease liabilities. Sale and leaseback In the year ended 31 March 2023, the Group disposed of its interest in Vantage Towers A.G. (‘Vantage Towers’) into a new joint venture, Oak Holdings 1 GmbH (‘Oak’). The Group has agreements with Vantage Towers to lease back spaces on its towers and, as a result, €680 million of the gain on di sposal was recorded in the year ended 31 March 2023 as a reduction in the value of the right-of- use asset. €121 million of the gain deferral related to Vodafone Spain which was disposed of during the year ended 31 March 2025; the remainder will be realised as a reduction in depreciation over the term of the leaseback until November 2028. Other sale and leaseback transactions entered into by the Group were not material, individually or in aggregate. Amounts recognised in the primary financial statements in relation to lessee transactions Right-of-use assets The carrying value of the Group’s right -of-use assets, depreciation charge for the year and additions during the year are disclosed in note 11 ‘Property, plant and equipment’.
20. Leases (continued) Where the Group is an intermediate lessor, the interests in the head lease and the sublease are accounted for separately and the lease classification of a sublease is determined by reference to the right-of-use asset arising from the head lease. Income from operating leases is recognised on a straight-line basis over the lease term. Income from finance leases is recognised at lease commencement with any interest income recognised over the lease term. Lease income is recognised as revenue for transactions that are part of the Group’s ordinary activities (i.e. primarily leases of handsets or other equipment to customers, leases of wholesale access to the Group’s fibre and cable networks and leases of tower infrastructure assets). The Group uses IFRS 15 principles to allocate the consideration in contracts between any lease and non-lease components. The Group’s leasing activities as a lessee The Group leases buildings for its retail stores, offices and data centres, land on which to construct mobile base stations, space on mobile base stations to place active RAN equipment and network space (primarily rack space or duct space). In addition, the Group leases fibre and other fixed connectivity to provide internal connectivity for the Group’s operations and on a wholesale basis from other operators to provide fixed connectivity services to the Group’s customers. The Group’s general approach to determining lease term by class of asset is described in note 1 ‘Basis of preparation’ under ‘Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty’. Most of the Group’s leases include future price increases through fixed percentage increases, indexation to inflation measures on a periodic basis or rent review clauses. Other than fixed percentage increases the lease liability does not reflect the impact of these future increases unless the measurement date has passed. The Group’s leases contain no material variable payments clauses other than those related to the number of operators sharing space on third party mobile base stations. Optional lease periods Where practicable the Group seeks to include extension or break options in leases to provide operational flexibility, therefore many of the Group’s lease contracts contain optional periods. The Group’s policy on assessing and reassessing whether it is reasonably certain that the optional period will be included in the lease term is described in note 1 ‘Basis of preparation’ under ‘Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty’. After initial recognition of a lease, the Group only reassesses the lease term when there is a significant event or a significant change in circumstances, which was not anticipated at the time of the previous assessment. Significant events or significant changes in circumstances could include merger and acquisition or similar activity, significant expenditure on the leased asset not anticipated in the previous assessment, or detailed management plans indicating a different conclusion on optional periods to the previous assessment. Where a significant event or significant change in circumstances does not occur, the lease term and therefore lease liability and right-of-use asset value, will decline over time.
Powered by FlippingBook