Vodacom takes forex hit

While Vodacom reported year-on-year growth for its 2025 financial year, the telecoms giant took a significant hit from foreign exchange headwinds.

Vodacom is South Africa’s largest mobile operator, serving around 40 million customers in the country and 211.3 million across all of its operating markets.

The telecoms giant released its results for the year ended 31 March 2025 on Monday, 19 May 2025, which showed a strong performance.

Vodacom’s revenue for its 2025 financial year grew to R152.23 billion, up 1.08% from the 2024 financial year.

Its service revenue declined slightly in the period, down 0.1% to R120.73 billion. EBITDA was down 1.1% to R55.51 billion.

The company’s operating profit grew by 1.28% to R35.79 billion, while its net profit grew by 3.25% to R19.89 billion.

Vodacom’s earnings also showed positive growth this year, with basic earnings per share rising 2% from 842 cents to 859 cents.

While Vodacom grew during its 2025 financial year, this growth was stunted by significant foreign exchange headwinds in some of the company’s markets.

Specifically, the Egyptian pound weakened 36% against the rand in the current financial year compared to the prior year, and the Ethiopian birr also weakened in the period.

These forex headwinds offset Vodacom’s strong growth in the period. For example, if adjusting for forex fluctuations, the company’s revenue grew by 10.9% rather than 1.08%.

In addition, Vodacom would have reported service revenue growth of 11.2% rather than a 0.1% decline were it not for these forex headwinds.

Regardless, Vodacom still managed to show positive growth across many metrics in its 2025 financial year, which also marked the end of its Vision 2025 strategy.

CEO Shameel Joosub said he is immensely proud of Vodacom’s progress over the past five years since this strategy was implemented.

Over the five-year period, Vodacom significantly expanded its geographic and product diversification.

This resulted in the number of customers using its networks increasing from 115.5 million (FY2020) to 211.3 million (FY2025).

The company’s financial services customers also rose from 53.2 million to 87.7 million, including Safaricom, over the same period.

Now, the company is focused on its Vision 2030 strategy and will aim to grow its customer base to 260 million and its financial services customer base to 120 million in the next five years.

Vodacom’s board declared a final dividend of 335 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 620 cents per share.