Vodacom profit hit by Ethiopia losses but Egypt lifts revenue

Group service revenue grew 42.2% to 59.3 billion rand, thanks to the acquisition of Vodafone Egypt and rand depreciation against a basket of international currencies. Vodafone Egypt contributed 16 cents to HEPS and 14.3 billion rand to group service revenue, Group CEO Shameel Joosub said. Excluding the contribution of Vodafone Egypt, group service revenue growth was 7.9% or 4.1% on a normalised basis, supported by a resilient performance in South Africa, he added. In South Africa, its largest market, investments to keep the network running during power cuts helped lift service revenue by 4%. After investing 4.5 billion rand over 4-1/2 years to mitigate the impacts of power cuts, Vodacom will spend about 1 billion rand in this fiscal year.