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Johannesburg - Vodacom Group [JSE:VOD], a unit of Britain's Vodafone Group, reported a 28% rise in full-year profit on Monday, helped by lower one-off charges and solid subscriber growth, and beat expectations with its dividend.
South Africa's dominant mobile carrier said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 654.3x in the year to end-March, compared with 509.4c a year earlier.
That was above the average estimate of 639.95c in a poll of 15 analysts by Thomson Reuters. The company said in a trading statement last month it expected earnings to be as much as 30% higher.
Headline EPS, the main measure of profit in South Africa, exclude certain one-time items.
Revenue totalled R61.2bn, an increase of 4.5% from R58.54bn a year earlier.
Vodacom said it was helped by a 9% increase in customers, increased data revenue and smaller write-downs related to its struggling satellite services firm, Gateway.
Vodacom, which operates mainly in South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, is fighting to keep market share from competitors such as MTN Group [JSE:MTN] and India's Bharti Airtel, both of which have a larger presence across the continent.
It is also facing increased competition at home, after its former shareholder Telkom [JSE:TKG] entered the mobile market last year.
Vodacom declared a final dividend of 280c, bringing its total dividend for the year to 460c. Analysts expected the full-year dividend to total 390.90cs, according to the Thomson Reuters poll.
Shares of Vodacom are up nearly 5% so far this year, outperforming Johannesburg's Top-40 index of blue chips, which is little changed
South Africa's dominant mobile carrier said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 654.3x in the year to end-March, compared with 509.4c a year earlier.
That was above the average estimate of 639.95c in a poll of 15 analysts by Thomson Reuters. The company said in a trading statement last month it expected earnings to be as much as 30% higher.
Headline EPS, the main measure of profit in South Africa, exclude certain one-time items.
Revenue totalled R61.2bn, an increase of 4.5% from R58.54bn a year earlier.
Vodacom said it was helped by a 9% increase in customers, increased data revenue and smaller write-downs related to its struggling satellite services firm, Gateway.
Vodacom, which operates mainly in South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, is fighting to keep market share from competitors such as MTN Group [JSE:MTN] and India's Bharti Airtel, both of which have a larger presence across the continent.
It is also facing increased competition at home, after its former shareholder Telkom [JSE:TKG] entered the mobile market last year.
Vodacom declared a final dividend of 280c, bringing its total dividend for the year to 460c. Analysts expected the full-year dividend to total 390.90cs, according to the Thomson Reuters poll.
Shares of Vodacom are up nearly 5% so far this year, outperforming Johannesburg's Top-40 index of blue chips, which is little changed
