LONDON (Reuters) -Vodafone reported an acceleration in first-quarter top line growth on Monday, driven by strong demand in Britain and improvements in Germany, Italy and Spain, marking a positive start for new chief executive Margherita Della Valle.
The European and African telecoms group also said it had appointed former SAP chief financial officer Luka Mucic to the same role at Vodafone, beginning on Sept. 1.
He will replace Della Valle who took on the top job permanently in April. She said on Monday that service revenue had improved “across almost all of our markets”, as it reported a 3.7% rise for the group.
The decline in Germany, Vodafone’s biggest market, more than halved quarter on quarter to 1.3%, as broadband price rises partially offset the impact of customer losses over the last 18 months, the company said.
Growth in service revenue in Britain, where Vodafone announced the merger of its operation with Hutchison’s rival network Three last month, accelerated to 5.7%, boosted by strong growth in consumer and annual price increases.
In Italy, improved demand from businesses helped reduce the decline to -1.6%, from -2.7% in the previous quarter, it said, while Spain saw a smaller improvement to -3.0% from -3.7%.
Della Valle has been tasked with simplifying the group and stemming the decline in some of its biggest markets in Europe, which have been hit by fierce competition.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton)
