Vodafone reiterates outlook on emerging mkts

LONDON, UK:  Vodafone reiterated its outlook on Friday after faster-growing markets such as India and Turkey helped the world's largest mobile company by revenue to withstand tough trading and increased regulation in Europe.

Vodafone posted first-quarter organic service revenue growth of 1.5 percent, down from the 2.5 per cent recorded in the previous quarter but broadly in line with a Reuters poll forecasting 1.4 per cent.

The overall performance was pulled lower by the 1.3 per cent fall in European organic service revenue, which was worse than the 0.8 per cent fall in the fourth quarter but slightly better than the forecast of a 1.5 per cent drop.

Sector analysts had been braced for a slew of bad results from European telco companies, as regulatory changes eat in to margins and consumers struggle, but they had looked to Vodafone and Telenor to shine due to their presence in the fast-growing emerging markets.

Telenor did just that earlier this week.

"We have made a good start to the year, reporting robust results despite challenging macroeconomic conditions across southern European economies and the impact of cuts to mobile termination rates," Chief Executive Vittorio Colao.

"With our broad geographical mix and improving market positions, we are well placed for the rest of the financial year."

Vodafone said its presence in markets such as India would allow it to reiterate its outlook, which was previously stated as full-year adjusted operating profit in the range of 11 billion pounds to 11.8 billion pounds, and free cash flow of 6 to 6.5 billion pounds.