Vodafone Forecasts Stronger Profit Growth

Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) on Tuesday set its sights on more profit gains in the current year after achieving its organic growth target for fiscal 2017.

The telecommunications group's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, including India for the year ended March 31, rose 3.4% to 15.8 billion euros ($16.93 billion), in line with the company's Ebitda growth expectations of 3% to 6% implying a range of EUR15.7 billion to EUR16.2 billion. Reported revenue for fiscal 2017, dropped 4.4% to EUR47.63 billion from the same period a year earlier.

Vodafone raised its final dividend a share by 2% to 10.03 cents, up 2%, giving total dividends per share of 14.77 cents.

For 2018, Vodafone said it expects organic adjusted Ebitda to grow between 4% to 8%, implying a range of EUR14.0 billion to EUR14.5 billion.

-Write to Razak Musah Baba at razak.baba@wsj.com; Twitter: @Raztweet

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 16, 2017 02:42 ET (06:42 GMT)