Vodafone has posted a 7.3% rise in revenues for H1 FY26, hitting €19.6bn, driven by strong service revenue growth and the consolidation of Three UK, partially offset by adverse foreign exchange movements. The acquisition of Telekom Romania is also starting to boost revenues for the group. Service revenue grew by 8.1% to €16.3bn in H1 (H1 FY25: €15.1 billion) and increased by 5.7% on an organic basis.
And much of this growth has come from Africa. According to the company’s latest results, Africa maintained double-digit organic service revenue growth (Q2: 13.5%), supported by above-inflation growth in Egypt and Vodacom’s international markets, with strong demand for data and financial services. This compares to a +1.2% organic growth in Q2 in the UK market and a welcome return to growth (+0.5%) in Q2 in Germany, supported by the end of the TV law change impact and higher wholesale revenue.
This African surge has been driven by Vodafone continuing to scale advanced financial services across the region, with 93.7 million financial services customers, including 12.7 million Vodafone Cash customers – Egypt’s market-leading mobile wallet. In South Africa, the carriers is supporting financial and digital inclusion through a dual ecosystem, in which it offers leading services to both consumers and merchants, by scaling and diversifying the VodaPay super-app.
Profits fall
Despite this strong performance, however, overall profits have dropped at the carrier. Operating profit decreased by 9.2% to €2.2bn (H1 FY25: €2.4bn), with Adjusted EBITDAaL growth offset by higher depreciation and amortisation from the consolidation of Three UK, and lower other income. FY26 guidance sees Vodafone expecting to deliver the upper end of its guidance ranges.
“Following the progress of our transformation, Vodafone has built broad-based momentum. In the second quarter we saw service revenue accelerating, with good performances in the UK, Türkiye and Africa, and a return to top-line growth in Germany,” says Margherita Della Valle, Group Chief Executive at Vodafone.
“Whilst we have more to do, we delivered good strategic progress in the half year, driving further operational improvements across the business, expanding our customer satisfaction initiatives, and making a fast start in integrating the Vodafone and Three networks in the UK. Based on our stronger performance, we are now expecting to deliver at the upper end of our guidance range for both profit and
cash flow, and as our anticipated multi-year growth trajectory is now under way, we are introducing a new progressive dividend policy, with an expected increase of 2.5% for this financial year.”
