Vodafone India Revenues Rose 24% For FY11

Vodafone's aggressive addition of mobile customers and a more stable pricing environment by the end of fiscal 2011 led to revenues of Vodafone India rising by 23.95 per cent to $6.16 billion for the fiscal year ended 31st March 2011 compared to $4.97 billion in the previous fiscal.

The Chief Executive of the UK based operator Vodafone Vittorio Colao said in the annual results issued today said, "Our performance in India has been driven by increasing voice penetration and a more stable pricing environment."

He added that two main factors behind the margin decline in organic EBITDA of the company (which fell by 0.6 per centage points) were the adverse impact from higher recurring licence fee costs in India and the change in regional mix from the strong growth in India.

Vodafone India's EBITA stood at $1.59 billion and the EBITDA margin was at 25.6 per cent. Voice revenues rose to $4.93 billion while messaging revenues registered at $277.32 million and data revenues at $400.58 million while fixed line revenues were at $11.35 million.

The operator had 134.57 million connections in India as of March 31, 2011, of which 95.3 per cent are pre-paid. The total annualised mobile customer churn for the quarter ended 31 March 2011 was 50.9%. The ARPU is now at Rs 171.

Vodafone is currently piloting its mobile money transfer platform in India. The platform has over 20 million customers globally.

The operator's contact centre operations were consolidated into two major centres in Hobart and Mumbai, India. Cash capital expenditure decreased by $531.95 million primarily due to lower expenditure in India.

Tax Case: Anticipated To Be $1B

The latest development on the tax case faced by the operator in India is a stay by the Supreme Court. Through its subsidiary Euro Pacific Securities Ltd, Vodafone has sought a confirmation from the Authority for Advanced Rulings in India on whether withholding tax is due in respect of consideration payable on the acquisition of Essar Group's offshore holding in VEL and the ruling is expected by the end of May 2011. The amount is anticipated to be approximately an additional $1 billion.