Vodafone pays dividends to UK parent after heavy cost cuts

Vodafone Australia managing director Graham Maher said the Australian business had been paying Vodafone plc dividends for the past two months and intended to keep doing so. He declined to comment on the size of the payments.

Mr Maher said that in the past 12 months or so, Vodafone had cut capital expenditure by 60 per cent, operating expenditure by 30 per cent and had increased revenue.

``The year before last we spent $700 million, last year (to March 30, 2002) we spent $250 million on capital expenditure," he said.

Vodafone's long-term goal was to cut capital expenditure by 50 per cent, shrink operating expenditure by 50 per cent and increase revenue by 50 per cent, Mr Maher said.

``In terms of capex we have over-achieved; on the operational side we are getting closer and we are confident of a pick-up in revenue."

Mr Maher said operating expenditure had been cut by nearly 35 per cent since the targets were first announced.

He said achieving the company's aggressive revenue targets would be challenging, given the downturn in the telecommunications sector but that sales growth would be possible from offering new data services and capturing an improved market share.

Mr Maher said Vodafone was winning market share in Australia. In July the company revealed its Australian subscriber base had risen to 2,167,000 from 2,050,000 at the end of March.

As part of the new service offerings, Vodafone yesterday unveiled its range of wireless email solutions that enable customers to access email on the move.

Mr Maher said the local business was on track to lift mobile data revenues to 25 per cent of total revenue by 2004-05, using its focus on business customers needing wireless office solutions.