Accra, May 21, GNA - Vodafone Group worldwide, the world's leading telecommunications company, posted 41.0 billion pounds revenue from operations in the year under review, up 15.6 per cent. A statement said revenue from Africa and Central Europe saw a growth of 11.2 per cent, while Asia Pacific and Middle East grew by 11.2 per cent, according to a statement issued in Accra by Vodafone in Accra.

It said Europe's revenue went up 13.6 per cent while outgoing voice usage went up 9.4 per cent. Group data revenue was also up 43.7 per cent to 3.0 billion pounds. The statement said final dividend per share was 5.20 pence while total dividend per share was up 3.5% to 7.77 pence. According to Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive of Vodafone group, "these results demonstrate the impact of the early actions we took to address the current economic conditions and highlight the benefits of our geographic diversity.

"The business continues to generate cash strongly and we have made good progress in implementing the strategy announced in November." He said data revenue grew to A33 billion for the year and their broadband and enterprise businesses continued to perform well, adding "our A31 billion cost reduction programme is ahead of plan and we continue to explore further ways to reduce cost. "We maintain our tight focus on capital discipline and returns to shareholders."

The statement said Group adjusted operating profit also went up 16.7 per cent to 11.8 billion pounds before impairment charges. It said the company's current proportionate mobile customer base hit 303 million as at 31 March 2009. On the outlook for 2010, Colao said they are expecting a revenue rise of up to 6.5 billion pounds