Above : Arun Sarin, Chief Executive, Vodafone Group Plc

Europe : BWCS : Global mobile operator Vodafone reported today that it has over 2.4 million 3G customers (300,000 of whom use 3G data cards). The figure was substantially higher than many financial analysts had predicted. At the same time, the Newbury-based giant announced pre-tax profits of £10.3 billion (US$18.9 billion) for the year to end of March 2005, a rise of 3% on last year.

However, it must be taken into account that the company’s profit figure excludes the cost of writing down its 3G investments and interest payments. In fact when these are factored in, Vodafone actually made a loss of £4.7 billion.

As the company underlined its desire to buy back £4.5 billion worth of its own shares and double its dividend payments to £4.07 per share, it revealed that sales had risen by 2% in the year to £34.13 billion. Meanwhile Vodafone’s total customer base was put at 154.8 million, up 16.3 million on the same time last year.

Many in the mobile industry had been expecting Vodafone to announce a 3G customer base of nearer 1.5 million. After revealing the higher figure, CEO Arun Sarin, declared that the company is on track to hit its target of 10 million 3G customer target by the end of this financial year. “We do think we can make 10 million as handset prices start to come down,” he said. Vodafone launched its 3G services in 13 markets in November 2004.

According to Sarin, his company will look for growth in new markets, and expects to complete acquisitions in Romania and the Czech Republic soon. Both of these countries represent “attractive growth prospects”, said Sarin. The group expects to deliver “organic growth” which does not include the effect of acquisitions, of between 6% and 9% in the current financial year.

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