Vodafone Group (VOD.L) — Company Research

Last Updated: 26 October 2026

Vodafone Group plc is one of Europe's and Africa's largest telecoms groups, selling mobile, broadband, TV and business connectivity services in Germany, the UK, eight other European markets, Türkiye and, through Vodacom, across Africa. It reports in euros and its financial year ends on 31 March. Since the last version of this report (9 June 2026) Vodafone has taken full ownership of VodafoneThree in the UK, raised its stake in Kenya's Safaricom through Vodacom, sold its half of VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands, raised its FY27 guidance and gained a new major shareholder, Vega, which agreed to buy e&'s 16.21% stake. Every figure below comes from Vodafone's results announcements, RNS notifications, annual report and SEC filings. There are no analyst opinions, price targets or ratings anywhere in it.

Share prices, and figures worked out from them, are not shown for London-listed companies on ChartsView.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / exchange	VOD — London Stock Exchange (American Depositary Shares on Nasdaq: VOD)
Sector	Telecommunications — mobile, fixed broadband, TV and business connectivity
Revenue (FY2026, year to 31 Mar 2026)	€40,461m, up 8.0% (FY2025: €37,448m); service revenue €33,480m, up 5.4% organically
Adjusted EBITDAaL (FY2026)	€11,351m, up 4.5% organically; margin 28.1%
Operating profit (FY2026)	€2,844m (FY2025: operating loss of €411m)
Result attributable to owners (FY2026)	Loss of €397m (FY2025: loss of €4,169m)
EPS (FY2026)	Basic loss per share from continuing operations 1.20 eurocents; adjusted basic EPS 10.72 eurocents
Dividend per share (FY2026)	4.6125 eurocents, up 2.5% (2.25c interim plus 2.3625c final)
Adjusted free cash flow (FY2026)	€2,621m (FY2025: €2,548m)
Net debt (31 Mar 2026)	€25,411m (31 Mar 2025: €22,397m)
Employees	Average of 92,988 during FY2026 (FY2025: 92,834), per the 2026 Annual Report
CEO / Leadership	Margherita Della Valle, Group Chief Executive; Pilar López, Chief Financial Officer since 1 December 2025; Jean-François van Boxmeer, Chair
Shares in issue	23,167,256,725 voting shares at 30 September 2026, excluding 1,161,734,604 held in treasury
Largest shareholder	Vega (Niel family) agreed on 10 July 2026 to buy e&'s 16.21% stake and expects to hold about 18.80% of the share capital by the end of 2026, subject to approvals

2. The Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Growth is back: FY2026 revenue rose 8.0% to €40,461m with organic service revenue up 5.4%, and Q1 FY2027 revenue rose 9.7% to €10,294m with organic service revenue up 5.2%.
• Guidance raised: after consolidating Safaricom, FY2027 guidance was raised on 27 July 2026 to Adjusted EBITDAaL of €13.0–13.3bn and adjusted free cash flow of €2.6–2.9bn, and management expects the upper end of both ranges.
• Full control of the UK business: Vodafone bought CK Hutchison's 49% of VodafoneThree for £4.3bn on 30 July 2026, and on 8 October 2026 raised the UK cost-saving target to £1bn a year by FY2032.
• Africa as a growth engine: Africa organic service revenue grew 12.9% in FY2026 and 12.6% in Q1 FY2027, and Vodacom's stake in Safaricom rose to 55% on 30 June 2026, so Safaricom is now consolidated.

Bear Case

• Germany still flat: Germany, the largest market at 30% of revenue, had organic service revenue of −0.2% in FY2026 and only +1.2% in Q1 FY2027.
• Statutory losses: the group made an attributable loss of €397m in FY2026 after an €8,481m depreciation and amortisation charge and an INWIT impairment, so basic EPS was negative for a second year.
• Debt rising again: net debt rose to €25,411m at 31 March 2026, and the VodafoneThree buyout, funded from cash, adds about 0.4x to pro forma leverage.
• Thin cash cover: reported free cash flow was €1,795m in FY2026, the dividend was rebased by half in FY2025 and no new buyback programme has been announced since the last €0.5bn tranche ended on 11 May 2026.

3. Revenue Segments

Vodafone reports six segments. The figures below are total revenue for FY2026 (year to 31 March 2026) from the FY26 preliminary results.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Germany (€12,133m)	30.0%	Mobile, cable broadband and TV in Germany; the migration of more than 12 million 1&1 customers onto Vodafone's network is complete. Adjusted EBITDAaL €4,243m.
UK — VodafoneThree (€9,192m)	22.7%	The merged Vodafone UK and Three UK business, consolidated from 31 May 2025 and 100% owned since 30 July 2026. Revenue up 30.0%. Adjusted EBITDAaL €1,881m.
Africa (€8,365m)	20.7%	Vodacom and Vodafone Egypt, including M-Pesa mobile money services. Safaricom is consolidated from 1 July 2026. Adjusted EBITDAaL €2,834m.
Other Europe (€5,714m)	14.1%	Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Romania, the Czech Republic and Albania. Adjusted EBITDAaL €1,574m.
Türkiye (€3,431m)	8.5%	Mobile and fixed operator in Türkiye; organic service revenue up 45.2% in a hyperinflationary economy. 5G launched in April 2026.
Common Functions (€1,825m)	4.5%	Group-wide services, partner markets and central costs; eliminations between segments were −€199m (−0.5%).

Vodafone Business, which sells connectivity, cloud and security services to companies across all segments, grew organic service revenue 5.0% in Q1 FY2027. Follow European telecoms on the ChartsView Live Charts page.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. Most revenue is recurring service revenue (€33,480m of €40,461m in FY2026) from monthly mobile and broadband contracts and prepaid plans, with the rest from handset and equipment sales. Vodafone's main profit measure is Adjusted EBITDAaL, which is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation after lease costs; it was €11,351m in FY2026, a 28.1% margin.

Capital intensity. Networks must be renewed constantly. Capital additions were €7,291m in FY2026, 18% of revenue, plus €209m of integration spending. Depreciation and amortisation of owned assets was €8,481m, which is why the statutory result is far below Adjusted EBITDAaL.

The moat. Spectrum licences, national mobile and fixed networks and large customer bases are expensive to replicate. Vodafone runs national mobile and cable networks in Germany, combined two of the UK's mobile networks in VodafoneThree, and in Africa operates the M-Pesa mobile money platform through Vodacom and Safaricom. Network-sharing and wholesale deals, such as hosting 1&1's customers in Germany, add revenue on existing infrastructure.

Capital return policy. The group targets net debt of 2.25–2.75 times Adjusted EBITDAaL, aiming for the bottom half of that range. The dividend was rebased to 4.5 eurocents in FY2025 and raised 2.5% for FY2026. Two €2bn buyback programmes repurchased 4.2bn shares between March 2024 and May 2026, and €3.1bn in total was returned to shareholders in FY2026.

5. Financial Health

Vodafone reports in euros under IFRS. Revenue and EPS are on a continuing-operations basis as re-presented after the sales of Vodafone Spain (31 May 2024) and Vodafone Italy (31 December 2024), taken from the annual reports, the FY26 preliminary results and Vodafone's SEC XBRL filings (CIK 0000839923).

Fiscal Year	Revenue (€m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2022	37,010	n/a	7.07c	11.68c	9.00c	€58,131m
FY2023	37,672	+1.8%	43.66c	11.28c	9.00c	€53,682m
FY2024	36,717	−2.5%	4.45c	7.47c	9.00c	€49,259m
FY2025	37,448	+2.0%	(15.86)c	7.87c	4.50c	€46,096m
FY2026	40,461	+8.0%	(1.20)c	10.72c	4.6125c	€45,506m

Fiscal years end on 31 March (FY2026 = year to 31 March 2026). EPS and dividends are in eurocents. GAAP EPS is basic earnings per share from continuing operations; FY2023 was lifted by the gain on the Vantage Towers transaction and FY2025 was cut by impairment charges. Adjusted EPS is adjusted basic EPS: FY2022 is as re-presented in the FY2023 results (not re-presented for Spain and Italy), FY2023 as re-presented in the FY2024 Annual Report. FY2022 growth is not shown because no FY2021 revenue figure on the same re-presented basis was found. Long-term debt is non-current borrowings (ifrs-full:LongtermBorrowings in SEC XBRL); FY2023 and FY2024 are the figures re-presented in the FY2025 filing after the IAS 1 amendments adopted on 1 April 2024, and FY2026 is from the FY26 preliminary results.

Quarter / Half	Revenue (€m)	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q1 FY2027 (to 30 Jun 2026)	10,294	Not disclosed in trading update	Not disclosed in trading update
H2 FY2026 (to 31 Mar 2026)†	20,852	about 3.80c	about (4.58)c
H1 FY2026 (to 30 Sep 2025)	19,609	6.92c	3.38c
FY2026 total	40,461	10.72c	(1.20)c

† Vodafone reports full results half-yearly and trading updates quarterly. H2 FY2026 figures are derived as the full year minus the first half and are approximate for EPS because share counts change between halves. Q1 FY2027 Adjusted EBITDAaL was €2,932m, up 6.2% organically, and operating profit was €3,873m, mainly from a gain on completing the Safaricom transaction. H1 FY2026 Adjusted EBITDAaL was €5,728m and H2 FY2026 €5,623m.

FY2026 cash flow and balance sheet. Net cash inflow from operating activities was €14,291m (FY2025: €15,373m) and capital additions were €7,291m. Free cash flow was €1,795m and adjusted free cash flow €2,621m. At 31 March 2026 borrowings were €52,636m (non-current €45,506m, current €7,130m), cash and cash equivalents €8,982m and short-term investments €3,431m, with €7.6bn of undrawn revolving credit facilities.

FY2027 guidance (updated 27 July 2026 to include Safaricom). Adjusted EBITDAaL of €13.0–13.3bn and adjusted free cash flow of €2.6–2.9bn, with management expecting the upper end of both ranges. Restructuring and integration costs are expected to be about €0.7bn.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, October 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Net debt	€25,411m at 31 March 2026 (31 March 2025: €22,397m)
Net debt to Adjusted EBITDAaL	About 2.2x (net debt €25,411m / Adjusted EBITDAaL €11,351m for FY2026), against a policy range of 2.25–2.75x; the VodafoneThree buyout adds about 0.4x on a pro forma basis
Total borrowings less cash	€40,223m (borrowings €52,636m − cash €8,982m − short-term investments €3,431m, 31 March 2026 balance sheet)
EBITDA (operating profit plus D&A)	€11,325m for FY2026 (operating profit €2,844m + depreciation and amortisation of owned assets €8,481m); €14,999m including €3,674m of depreciation on leased assets, the wider total
Free cash flow	€1,795m reported; €2,621m adjusted. Operating cash inflow €14,291m less capital additions €7,291m was €7,000m before lease payments, interest and spectrum
Adjusted EPS	10.72 eurocents for FY2026 (FY2025: 7.87c)
Dividend per share	4.6125 eurocents for FY2026; FY2027 interim to be declared on 10 November 2026
Credit ratings	Moody's Baa2, Fitch BBB and S&P BBB, all with stable outlooks (Vodafone debt investor page)
Short interest (% of float)	1.29% of issued share capital: the FCA's aggregate net short position for Vodafone, position date 9 October 2026. Since 13 July 2026 the FCA publishes only anonymised aggregates built from positions of 0.2% or more. About 10.7m Nasdaq ADS were sold short at 26 October 2026 (shortsqueeze.com).
Days to cover	About 2.7 days for the Nasdaq ADS (shortsqueeze.com, 26 October 2026); not published for the London line

7. What Are They Building

A single UK network. With 100% of VodafoneThree since 30 July 2026, Vodafone is combining the two networks and back offices. At the 8 October 2026 investor briefing it raised the cost-saving target to £1bn a year by FY2032 (previously £0.7bn by FY2030), set a target of mid-to-high single-digit annual growth in Adjusted EBITDAaL from FY2025 to FY2032, and said operating free cash flow should more than triple by FY2032 compared with FY2025.

An African fintech and data platform. Vodacom paid about €1.81bn for a further 20% of Safaricom, taking it to 55%, and consolidates it from 1 July 2026. Together with M-Pesa and the Maziv fibre joint venture in South Africa (30% interest, closed 2 December 2025), Africa is the group's fastest-growing region.

Fibre partnerships in Europe. In Germany the OXG fibre joint venture gained Société Générale as a new 50% shareholder on 1 September 2026; in Greece, Vodafone and PPC Group signed non-binding heads of terms on 10 June 2026 for a 50:50 fibre-to-the-home venture covering more than 1.6m homes.

Business and satellite services. Vodafone bought German cloud services firm Skaylink in December 2025 and on 14 October 2026 launched Express Capacity, a data-centre connectivity service. On 19 October 2026 it signed a letter of intent with Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefónica to explore a joint bid for EU mobile satellite services spectrum.

8. Competitive Landscape

Vodafone competes with national incumbents in each market and with cable, fibre and low-cost mobile challengers.

Peer	Key 2025 metric
Deutsche Telekom (DTE)	FY2025 net revenue €119,081m; adjusted EBITDA AL €44,244m (Deutsche Telekom FY2025 results release, February 2026)
Orange (ORA)	FY2025 revenue €40,396m, up 0.9%; EBITDAaL about €12.47bn (FY2025 results as reported by TelecomTV)
Telefónica (TEF)	FY2025 revenue €35,120m; adjusted EBITDA €11,918m (Telefónica Q4 2025 results press release)
BT Group (BT.A)	Year to 31 March 2026 revenue £19,654m (prior year £20,358m); adjusted EBITDA £8,230m (BT full-year results RNS, 21 May 2026)

Vodafone's FY2026 revenue of €40,461m is similar to Orange's and above Telefónica's, but about a third of Deutsche Telekom's, which is boosted by T-Mobile US. In the UK, BT is the main fixed-line rival to VodafoneThree.

9. Leadership and Insider Activity

Margherita Della Valle is Group Chief Executive (CEO), Pilar López became Chief Financial Officer on 1 December 2025, succeeding Luka Mucic, and Jean-François van Boxmeer is Chair. At the 27 July 2026 AGM, Olaf Koch and Pilar López were elected to the board and Amparo Moraleda retired; e&'s nominee director Hatem Dowidar resigned after e& agreed to sell its stake to Vega.

The following director and PDMR dealings were disclosed through RNS notifications in 2026. A PDMR is a person discharging managerial responsibilities.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Plan Type
Joakim Reiter	18 Sep 2026	Sale	500,000	On-market sale
Shameel Joosub	07 Aug 2026	Sale	745,000	On-market sale
Jean-François van Boxmeer (Chair), Scott Petty, Joakim Reiter	04 Aug 2026	Dividend reinvestment	22,076; 23,428; 53,059	Dividend reinvestment plan
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)	30 Jul 2026	Grant	4,070,955 performance shares (maximum) and 4,885,147 options	Global Incentive Plan 2023 (GLTI and MVSO)
Alberto Ripepi	30 Jul 2026	Sale	1,000,000	On-market sale
Ahmed Essam	28 Jul 2026	Sale	2,500,000	On-market sale
Margherita Della Valle (CEO)	27 Jul 2026	Vesting; 2,658,846 sold on 28 Jul to cover tax	5,642,976 vested	Global Incentive Plan
Pilar López (CFO), Marika Auramo, Guillaume Boutin, Ruth McGill	25 Jun 2026	Purchase	57,194; 77,072; 98,915; 35,272	Bonus deferral
Simon Segars (non-executive director)	13 May 2026	Purchase	50,000	Open-market purchase

10. Key Risks

• Germany (Operational): Germany is 30% of revenue and its organic service revenue fell 0.2% in FY2026. Organic growth of only 1.2% in Q1 FY2027 shows the largest market has not yet returned to clear growth.
• Leverage (Financial): net debt was €25,411m at 31 March 2026 and the £4.3bn VodafoneThree buyout, paid in cash, adds about 0.4x to pro forma leverage; higher interest costs or weaker cash flow would limit dividends and buybacks.
• UK integration (Strategic): the £1bn annual cost target for VodafoneThree depends on merging two networks and IT systems without disrupting customers; delays or overruns would hit the growth targets set on 8 October 2026.
• Currency and emerging markets (Macro): Türkiye, Egypt and African markets add growth but expose euro-reported results to hyperinflation, currency devaluation and political risk; Safaricom adds Kenyan exposure.
• Regulation and spectrum (Regulatory): spectrum auctions, licence renewals, mobile termination and roaming rules and national network-security requirements can add costs in every market.
• Shareholder concentration (Governance): Vega expects to hold about 18.80% of the shares and 19.87% of voting rights by the end of 2026, giving one investor significant influence over strategy and capital allocation.

11. Recent Developments

• 10 Jul 2026 — Vega to buy e&'s stake. Vega, owned by the Niel family, agreed to buy e&'s entire 16.21% holding of 3,944,743,685 shares for about £4.4bn; the relationship agreement with e& ended and its nominee director resigned.
• 27 Jul 2026 — Q1 FY2027 trading update and guidance raised. Revenue rose 9.7% to €10,294m and organic service revenue 5.2%; FY2027 guidance was raised to Adjusted EBITDAaL of €13.0–13.3bn including Safaricom, with the upper end expected. The AGM was held the same day and all resolutions put to the meeting passed.
• 30 Jul 2026 — Full ownership of VodafoneThree. Vodafone completed the £4.3bn purchase of CK Hutchison's 49% stake and gave notice to redeem its US dollar capital securities due 2081.
• 03 Aug 2026 — VodafoneZiggo sale completed. Vodafone sold its 50% of VodafoneZiggo to Liberty Global for €1.0bn in cash plus 10% of Ziggo Group.
• 01 Sep 2026 — New partner for German fibre venture. Société Générale agreed to buy the 50% of the OXG fibre joint venture held by Geodesia.
• 08 Oct 2026 — VodafoneThree targets raised. The UK cost-saving target rose to £1bn a year by FY2032 and operating free cash flow is expected to more than triple by FY2032 compared with FY2025.
• 19 Oct 2026 — Satellite spectrum alliance. Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefónica signed a letter of intent to explore a joint bid for mobile satellite services spectrum.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• 10 Nov 2026 — H1 FY2027 results (six months to 30 September 2026), expected to include the interim dividend (Vodafone financial calendar)
• Expected Nov 2026 — ex-dividend and payment dates for the FY2027 interim dividend, to be set with the results
• TBC — completion of Vega's purchase of e&'s stake, which Vega expects by the end of 2026, subject to approvals
• 04 Feb 2027 — Q3 FY2027 trading update
• 18 May 2027 — FY2027 full-year results

Euro-area and UK interest-rate decisions and inflation data are on the ChartsView Economic Calendar. Discuss European telecoms with other investors in the ChartsView Forum.

---

Disclaimer: This research is produced by ChartsView for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. All information is sourced from publicly available company filings, press releases, and official data. ChartsView does not use analyst opinions or third-party ratings. Always conduct your own due diligence and consider your personal financial situation before making investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.