Vodafone still stabilising in third quarter

Vodafone was still looking to stabilise its operations in the third quarter of the year, posting some organic growth but reported contractions, with particular struggles in Europe.

The FTSE 100 mobile network operator said it had a 1.4% increase in group organic service revenue to £10.28bn, though it was down 6.3% on a reported basis in the three months to 31 December 2015.

Vodafone said its recovery in Europe was ongoing, with that market contracting by 0.6% on an organic basis and 7.1% on a reported basis.

Its commercial progress in that region saw it add 506,000 net mobile contracts during the period, and 311,000 broadband customers.

Fixed line service revenue specifically was up 3.7% in Europe, with the firm now marketing high speec broadband to 69m customers, with 29m on the network.

Vodafone's Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific (AMAP) region saw organic growth of 6.5%, but a reported contraction of 3.6%.

"We have taken another step forward in the last three months, with the highlights being a strong performance in South Africa and improving trends in Germany and Italy", said group chief executive Vittorio Colao.

"With seven million new customers in the quarter, we have maintained out good commercial momentum in mobile and are beginning to accelerate in fixed, as we launch converged services in more markets", he added.

The company's Project Spring was also ongoing, with 4G coverage up to 84% in Europe and AMAP build targets achieved.

Vodafone added 4.7m 4G customers in the quarter, and now had a total of 34.8m.

"Customers are increasingly recognising the quality of our networks, leading to strong growth in data usage and benefiting from the significant investments in 4G and fibre that we have made over the last two years", Colao said.

The Vodafone Group's board confirmed its previous guidance for the full year.