The Hindu Business Line : Vodafone India turnover up 50%

Chennai, May 27 Vodafone’s India operations have recorded a 50 per cent growth in turnover at Rs 15,288 crore in fiscal 2007-08, its consolidated figures reveal. In contrast, its global operations have grown by only 14 per cent during this period. India accounts for 5 per cent of its global revenues,

For Vodafone Plc, India has been the fastest growing market, even ahead of geographies such as Turkey. The country also scores well on the profit margin front, with Indian operations registering higher profitability than the UK and the Netherlands markets.

In terms of subscriber base and revenues, the performance puts Vodafone behind Bharti and Reliance Communications (RCom).

Monthly subscriber additions have been healthy at the rate of 1.5 million subscribers, resulting in a subscriber base of 44.1 million as of March 2008.

Bharti Airtel and RCom, however, have better operating margins on a higher revenue base. Vodafone has attempted to shed its ‘premium’ image with offers such as ‘chota recharge’., While this would have aided customer additions, could have also resulted in lower realisations.

The packaging of services along with low-priced handsets, to cater to the mass market and Vodafone’s high decibel ad campaign to establish its new identity, may also explain lower margins.Average revenue per user has come down over the year for Vodafone, but is still higher than that of RCom and Idea Cellular.

In India, as with other operators, Vodafone’s rural foray will mean more strain on margins; but once it consolidates margins may improve. As a partner in Indus Towers, along with Bharti and Idea, the company may expect savings on tower infrastructure expenditure too.

Arun Sarin steps down

Just as his appointment took everyone by surprise five years ago, Indian born Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Plc, Mr Arun Sarin, on Tuesday, said he was stepping down from the post after leading the company to a record profit of œ6 billion. Without giving any reason for the sudden move, Mr Sarin said "I have accomplished what I set out to achieve, particularly in developing and implementing a new strategy."

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