Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2025 21
Strategic report
Governance
Financials
Other information
Our financial performance continued
Customers We have delivered significant improvements in customer experience this year and now have a market leading NPS position and lowest ever share of detractors in our base. This is reflected in Ofcom mobile complaints, which are down 30% year-on- year. These achievements supported our record level customer loyalty, and an increase in our mobile Consumer contract customer base of 117,000. This was partially offset by large low-value contract disconnections in Business and a reclassification of part of the mobile customer base to IoT, with our total contract customer base increasing by 7,000 in FY25. In fixed, we continue to be one of the fastest growing broadband providers in the UK and our customer base increased by 227,000 during the year. This was supported by the launch of the new ‘One Touch Switching’ service in September 2024, making it even easier for customers to join us. We now cover 19.4 million households with gigabit speeds, and in July, we announced that we now offer faster speeds of up to 2.2Gbps in more locations than any other provider. Portfolio In June 2023, we announced a binding agreement to combine our UK business with Three UK to create a sustainable and competitive third scaled network operator in the UK. In December 2024, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’) approved the combination of Vodafone and Three in the UK. Following the merger, which we expect to complete in the first half of 2025. Vodafone and CK Hutchison will own 51% and 49% of the combined business, respectively. This combination will provide customers with greater choice and more value, drive greater competition, and enable increased investment with a clear £11 billion plan to create one of Europe’s most advanced 5G networks.
Despite higher competitive intensity in the mobile market, our Consumer mobile contract customer base increased by 90,000. Our increased focus on higher value branded and direct sales channels was partially offset by the anticipated loss of low-margin customers through reseller channels and 65,000 net disconnections from business accounts, partially driven by some large contract tenders in the prior year. We added a further 6.4 million IoT connections, driven by demand from the automotive sector. UK: Strong customer experience & Adj. EBITDAaL performance FY25 €m FY24 €m Reported change % Organic change 1 %
Mobile service revenue grew by 2.9% (Q3: 6.0%, Q4: 4.4%), as broadly stable organic mobile service revenue of 0.3% (Q3: 1.8%, Q4: 1.8%) was supported by the appreciation of GBP:EUR. The organic performance was primarily driven by Consumer customer base growth and the delivery of project milestones in Business. This was partially offset by the significantly lower level of inflation- linked price rises compared to the prior year and the ongoing dilution of the back book from front book pricing in mobile. Fixed service revenue grew by 9.2% (Q3: 12.3%, Q4: 8.8%) and organic growth in fixed service revenue was 6.5% (Q3 7.6%, Q4: 6.4%). Growth was supported by foreign exchange movements, continued growth in our customer base and ARPU growth in Consumer. The slowdown in quarterly trends was driven by Business due to some managed services contract losses. Vodafone Business service revenue increased by 1.6% (Q3: 3.7%, Q4: 3.7%) and organic growth in Vodafone Business service revenue declined by 0.9% (Q3: -0.4%, Q4: 1.3%). Growth in fixed due to strong commercial performance, and business demand for our digital services and project work, was offset by a decline in mobile, primarily driven by lower inflation-linked price increases and ARPU pressure. The improvement in quarterly growth trends was driven by project activity. Adjusted EBITDAaL increased by 10.7% in the period, and on an organic basis, Adjusted EBITDAaL increased by 7.9%. The increase in Adjusted EBITDAaL was primarily driven by service revenue growth, a 2.7 percentage point benefit from lower energy costs and other cost efficiencies. The Adjusted EBITDAaL margin improved by 1.4 percentage points year-on-year to 22.0%.
Adjusted EBITDAaL declined by 12.6%, primarily due to a 7.5 percentage point impact related to the MDU transition (H1: -7.0 percentage points; H2: -8.0 percentage points). Excluding this impact, the decline in Adjusted EBITDAaL was largely driven by lower service revenue and increased investment in the customer experience, our brand and Vodafone Business as we have chosen to prioritise investment to support the turnaround of Vodafone Germany, as well as higher customer costs in the more intense competitive environment. A 2.4 percentage point benefit from lower energy costs was offset by higher inflation across the cost base. The Adjusted EBITDAaL margin was 2.7 percentage points lower year-on-year at 36.0%. Customers Our broadband customer base declined by 102,000 in FY25, including the loss of 43,000 customers on our gigabit-capable network. During the year, customer additions on our gigabit- capable broadband footprint gradually improved and, as we had anticipated, in the second half of the year we stabilised our gigabit customer base. This was supported by the improved customer experience, as we have achieved the lowest ever share of detractors in our base. We are now the largest provider of fixed line gigabit connectivity in Germany, supported by our wholesale agreements with Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Glasfaser. We can now market gigabit speeds to almost 75% of German homes with 5 million fibre households beyond our own cable footprint of 25 million households. During the year, we completed the migration of our MDU TV customer base following the change in TV law that came into effect in July 2024. By the end of March 2025, we had retained 4.2 million households under new commercial terms, which is in line with our initial expectation that we would retain around 50% of the 8.5 million MDU TV households.
Total revenue
7,069 6,837
3.4 4.5
Service revenue 5,887 5,631
1.9 7.9
Other revenue 1,182 1,206 Adjusted EBITDAaL 1,558 1,408 10.7
Adjusted EBITDAaL margin
22.0% 20.6%
Note: 1. Organic growth is a non-GAAP measure. See page 213 for more information. Growth Total revenue increased by 3.4% to €7.1 billion due to service revenue growth and the appreciation of GBP:EUR. Service revenue increased by 4.5% (Q3: 7.6%; Q4: 5.7%) due to foreign exchange movements and organic growth in service revenue which increased by 1.9% (Q3: 3.3%; Q4: 3.1%), as growth in Consumer was offset by a decline in Business.
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