Vodafone shares hit five-year high

Updated 11.43 Tue May 29 2007

Keywords: profits, mobile phone, Vodafone

Vodafone shares hit a five-year high after the mobile phone giant announced higher earnings per share and an 11.4 per cent rise in dividend payouts.

Shares hit a high of 159p, a rise of almost 5 per cent, after the Newbury-based company said underlying earnings increased 1.6 per cent to £11.96 billion when charges and other one-off factors were stripped out, up from £11.76 billion a year earlier.

"We expect market conditions to remain challenging for the year ahead in Europe, notwithstanding continued positive operating trends in data revenue and voice usage" - Arun Sarin

Revenues climbed 4.3 per cent, excluding acquisitions, to £31.1 billion.

Chief Executive Arun Sarin said: "We expect market conditions to remain challenging for the year ahead in Europe, notwithstanding continued positive operating trends in data revenue and voice usage."

In the UK, revenues edged 1. 5 per cent ahead to £5.12 billion with earnings in the region falling 10.1 per cent to £1.46 billion in the year.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Vodafone's biggest market, the same rate of decline was seen as revenues dipped 5.4 per cent to £5.44 billion while earnings stood at £2.43 billion.

And in Italy, the company took a further hit of £3.5 billion to cover the impact of legislation cancelling fixed fees on the top-up of prepaid cards.