Vodafone Group has communicated preliminary results for the 2026 financial year, which ended on March 31, which recorded total revenue growing by 8% to 40.5 billion euros, compared to 37.4 billion euros in the 2025 financial year, driven by growth in service revenues and the consolidation of Three UK.
Service revenues grew by 8.8 percent to 33.5 billion euros, equivalent to an organic increase of 5.4 percent, with growth in all segments except Germany. EBITDAaL (EBITDA after Lease) increased by 3.8% to 11.4 billion euros (+4.5% organic), reaching the upper limit of the company’s forecast (11.6 billion). The group returned to operating profit of 2.8 billion euros, compared with a loss of 0.4 billion euros a year earlier, when results were affected by non-cash write-downs. Adjusted free cash flow stood at 2.6 billion euros.
Loss per share from continuing operations narrowed to 1.20 euro cents from 15.86 euro cents a year earlier, while adjusted earnings per share rose to 10.72 euro cents from 7.87 euro cents a year earlier.
Segment trend
The performance of the segments was uneven depending on the geographical area. In Germany, organic service revenues fell 0.2% year-over-year, but gradually improved to +1.3% in the fourth quarter, driven by rising wholesale revenues, improved broadband ARPU (average revenue per user) and demand for digital services from enterprise customers. The UK recorded organic service revenue growth of 0.3%, with increases in the Consumer and Wholesale segments partially offset by declines in the Business segment, linked to the expected termination of managed services contracts. The rest of Europe grew by 0.5%, with competitive pressure in Portugal impacting the result. Turkey recorded service revenue growth of 10.8% in euro terms, excluding the effects of hyperinflation, while Africa maintained double-digit organic service revenue growth of 12.9%, supported by Egypt and Vodacom’s international markets. Business services revenues increased 3.2% on an organic basis, with double-digit growth in digital services.
The Group’s CEO, Margherita Della Valle, underlined “after the transformation of the last three years, we are now a simpler company with stronger growth prospects. Our strategic progress has generated good performance in the Group’s service revenues for the current year, together with profits and cash flows at the high end of our forecast”.
Capital structure and shareholder returns
Net debt rose to €25.4 billion from €22.4 billion a year earlier, following VodafoneThree’s debt consolidation and €2 billion share buyback programme.
The last €0.5 billion tranche of the second €2 billion share buyback program ended on May 11, 2026.
The total dividend per share for fiscal 2026 is 4.6125 euro cents, an increase of 2.5% year-on-year. The capital returned to shareholders in financial year 2026 amounted to 3.1 billion euros.
Outlook for 2027
For fiscal 2027, Vodafone expects adjusted EBITDA of between 11.9 and 12.2 billion euros and adjusted free cash flow of between 2.6 and 2.9 billion euros. Restructuring and integration costs are expected to peak at approximately €0.7 billion, of which approximately €0.4 billion related to the merger with VodafoneThree. The medium-term goal is double-digit organic growth in adjusted free cash flow.
