Vodafone Service Revenue Beats Estimates on German Growth

A Vodafone Group Plc store in Berlin.

Vodafone Group Plc reported first-quarter service revenue growth that beat analysts’ estimates after sales increased in Germany, the phone carrier’s largest market.

Service revenue rose 5.2% in the fiscal quarter ending in June, the company said in a statement on Monday. Analysts, on average, were expecting a 4.6% gain, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

Chief Executive Officer Margherita Della Valle has been working to reignite growth at the British phone company and improve share prices. She’s sold off underperforming assets in Spain and Italy and worked to bolster key markets, such as the UK where the company bought out its partner CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. to gain control over the country’s biggest mobile operator. In Germany, the carrier’s biggest market, it is trying to recover ground after a 2024 law change barred landlords from bundling rent with TV and broadband services, costing the company millions of customers.

While shareholders have rewarded Della Valle, sending shares up more than 30% in the last 12 months, the pared-back phone company is still trading well below its valuation a decade ago. French telecommunications billionaire Xavier Niel became Vodafone’s biggest shareholder this month, agreeing to pay $6 billion for a more than 16% stake from Emirates Telecommunications Group Co. Niel’s Vega investment vehicle holds about 18.8% of Vodafone’s share capital after buying an additional holding less than a week later.

Read More: Niel’s $6 Billion Vodafone Deal Expands Global Telecom Empire

The company raised its estimate for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization after leases to a range of €13 billion ($14.8 billion) to €13.3 billion for the full year ending in March. The increase reflects contributions from Kenya and Ethiopia after Vodafone took full control of the Safaricom business. The company said it expects to achieve the upper end of that range.

Vodafone shares fell 1.3% on Friday to close at 114.60 pence in London trading, giving the company a market value of £26.4 billion.