South Africa’s Vodacom half-year revenue hit by Ethiopia prices

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 13 (Reuters) – South Africa’s largest telecoms operator Vodacom (VODJ.J) reported a 4.2% drop in half-year earnings on Monday, hit by the price of beginning operations in Ethiopia and better rates of interest.

The corporate, which is majority owned by Britain’s Vodafone (VOD.L), co-launched Safaricom Ethiopia final yr, betting that the populous nation will energy development after about 5 years of funding.

Group CEO Shameel Joosub stated Safaricom Ethiopia has already reached 4.1 million clients and extra lately it launched its cellular monetary providers enterprise M-Pesa there.

Headline earnings per share (HEPS), a revenue measure, fell to 438 cents within the six months ended Sept. 30, from 457 cents a yr earlier.

Group service income grew 42.2% to 59.3 billion rand ($3.16 billion), because of the acquisition of Vodafone Egypt and rand depreciation in opposition to its basket of worldwide currencies.

Excluding the contribution of Vodafone Egypt, group service income development was 7.9% or 4.1% on a normalised foundation, supported by a resilient efficiency in South Africa, the operator stated.

($1 = 18.7489 rand)

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