Vodafone shrugs off eurostorms

The mobile phone giant Vodafone said it remained on track yesterday despite the economic storm buffeting its southern Europe markets.

The group posted revenues growth of 1.5 per cent to £10.8bn for the quarter to 30 June, helped by continued strong trading in emerging markets such as India and Turkey and a resilient performance in the UK.

Revenues in its home market rose 1.7 per cent, with growing demand for smartphones and data bundles offsetting a competitive market and an industry-wide cut in the rates that operators charge to handle other networks' traffic. However, economic pressures meant service revenues declined by nearly 10 per cent in Spain and by 1.5 per cent in Italy, while the company also reported tough trading in Greece.

Vodafone's chief executive, Vittorio Colao, said the company's spread of markets and drive for more data revenues meant that targets for the financial year remained in place. In India, service revenues grew by 17 per cent, driven by a 30 per cent increase in the customer base.

Vodafone shares closed up 2 per cent at 164.55p.