Vodafone has announced its half-year financial results for the six months until 30th September 2012. Group revenue was down 7.4% year-on-year to £21.78 billion, although the company says this is equivalent to an ‘organic’ 0.2% increase when mergers, acquisitions and foreign exchange rates are taken into account.

Vittorio Colao, Vodafone Group Chief Executive, said “We have continued to make progress on our strategic priorities over the last six months, with good growth in data and emerging markets in particular. In the short-term, however, our results reflect tougher market conditions, mainly in Southern Europe. We remain very positive about the longer-term opportunities, and our Vodafone 2015 strategy reflects our confidence in the future. This is based on a new strategic approach to our consumer offer and pricing in Europe now being rolled out, an increasing focus on unified communications in enterprise, and an attractive and growing exposure to emerging markets. Fundamental to the success of this strategy will bean ongoing enhancement of the consumer and enterprise customer experience through continuous investment in high speed data networks, and an increased drive towards standardisation and simplification across the Group to maximise cost efficiency and accelerate execution.”

In the UK, service revenue was down by 2.1% when measured organically. The company says this was “driven by macroeconomic weakness and competitive pressures partially offset by an increase in data revenue and the success of integrated tariffs.” It also notes “significant pressure resulting from competitors introducing a number of new unlimited tariffs during Q4 of the 2012 financial year.”

[Presentation (pdf)]