Vodafone takes 6 billion pounds writedown on Europe

Vodafone wrote down the value of its business in Spain and Italy by 5.9 billion pounds and lowered its full-year outlook on Tuesday after reporting a worse than expected fall in its key organic service revenue metric.

The British company posted a 1.4 percent fall in group organic service revenue in the second quarter - its first fall in the metric since 2010 - due to the sharp slowdown in its southern European business.

Vodafone was hit by customers trying to make fewer calls in southern Europe, the weakening of currencies in its major markets and the slowdown of still-solid growth in emerging markets such as India and South Africa.

It also said it expected its free cash flow for the year to be in the lowr half of the guidance range for the full year.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Paul Sandle)