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LONDON, JULY 19: Vodafone, the world's second-biggest mobile operator in terms of customers, said it added 9.1 million subscribers in three months ended June – including nearly one-third from India where it entered through a 10.9 billion dollar acquisition of Hutch-Essar.
In its first quarter of the current financial year, India emerged as the biggest country in terms of net additions. The British mobile firm said it added 3.04 million subscribers in India, where its total subscribers increased to over 30 million and revenues jumped by 50 per cent.
Vodafone operates in India in joint venture with Ruias' Essar group after buying Hutchison Telecom's stake in Hutch-Essar February this year. The entity has since been renamed as Vodafone-Essar.
"Our Indian business has delivered strong growth in the quarter, with its integration into the Group progressing well.
We are reiterating our guidance for the current financial year," Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said in a statement.
Vodafone's global revenue grew by 7.5 per cent and stood at 8.3 billion pounds. The net addition in June quarter this fiscal is nearly double of 4.8 million in the same quarter of 2006. Its worldwide subscriber base has risen to 232 million.
"We have made a good start to the financial year, with a strong performance from emerging markets offsetting continued challenging markets in Europe. We continue to make progress in
the execution of our strategic objectives," he added.
On the revenue front, the company said "the Group's more recent acquisitions in India and Turkey have delivered strong year-on-year total revenue growth in local currency of 50 and 32 per cent respectively, calculated by assuming the Group owned these businesses for the whole of both quarters." |