Vodafone earnings after taxation collapse to £5.76bn

Vodafone’s annual net profits slumped dramatically but the performance was skewed by the sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless, the British company said yesterday. Earnings after taxation collapsed to £5.76bn ($9.0bn, €8.0bn) in the year to March 31, the world’s second-largest mobile operator said in a results statement. That compared with an enormous net profit of £59.25bn in the previous 2013/2014 financial year, when earnings were boosted by the sale of its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon for $130bn. The deal—one of the biggest transactions in global corporate history—was agreed in September 2013 but completed in February 2014. In a separate development last week, US telecoms giant Verizon announced plans to buy faded Internet pioneer AOL for $4.4bn. Vodafone added that annual revenues rose 10.1% to £42.2bn, aided by its purchase of Spanish cable firm Ono and Kabel Deutschland (KDG), the largest cable operator in Germany. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) meanwhile gained 7.5% to £11.9bn. The group also forecast that EBITDA would be in the range of £11.5bn to £12.0bn in the current 2015/2016 financial year.