Tobi Ijalana
British telecoms giant, Vodafone, announced on Tuesday that it recorded a vast annual net loss of 7.6 billion euros ($8.5 billion).
“The loss for the financial year of 7.6 billion euros was primarily due to a loss on disposal of Vodafone India (following the completion of the merger with Idea Cellular) and impairments,” Vodafone said.
It was gathered that the poor performance was sparked partly by a 3.4-billion-euro loss from the sale of Indian operations.
According to BBCNews, Vodafone has cut its payout to shareholders for the first time.
Pertaining to the loss, chief executive Nick Read of Vodafone said:
“We are executing our strategy at pace and have achieved our guidance for the year, with good growth in most markets but also increased competition in Spain and Italy and headwinds in South Africa.
“These challenges weighed on our service revenue growth during the year, and together with high spectrum auction costs have reduced our financial headroom.”
The mobile phone giant pays one of the biggest dividends in the UK.
Revenues in the year to March fell 6% to €43.7bn
