By Najat Kantouar


Vodafone Group third-quarter revenue fell despite further growth at its business segment, the company said.

The U.K.-based telecommunications company said Monday that for the quarter ended Dec. 31, group revenue fell 2.3% from the same period a year earlier to 11.37 billion euros ($12.27 billion), but rose 4.2% on organic basis.

The group's service revenue--a closely watched metric in the telecom sector--fell to EUR9.38 billion from EUR9.52 billion.

Within this, Italy was down 1.3%, U.K. rose 5.2%, Spain fell 1.2%, while other Europe service revenue grew 3.6% to EUR1.175 billion. Germany service revenue increased 0.3% to EUR2.89 billion. In Turkey, service revenue rose to EUR393 million.

At its Vodafone Business segment, service revenue growth accelerated to 5%, boosted by a strong performance in digital services, the company said.

Vodafone reiterated that adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and after leases are expected to be broadly flat at around EUR13.3 billion and adjusted free cash flow to be around EUR3.3 billion.

"We've made good strategic progress in the first nine months of the year, with improving customer satisfaction and three consecutive quarters of service revenue growth in Europe. Our announced transactions in the U.K. and Spain are progressing well, and we are in active discussions in Italy," Group Chief Executive Margherita Della Valle said.


Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-05-24 0250ET