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Technology Stocks : Vodafone-Airtouch (NYSE: VOD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (3121)	4/5/2001 3:29:10 PM
From: MrGreenJeans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3175

Vodafone customer growth slows, focus on profits (UPDATE: Adds analysis, quotes in paragraphs 8-11) By Richard Baum, UK telecoms correspondent LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Vodafone Group Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VOD.L) announced a slowdown in customer growth in the first quarter on Thursday and said it expected the trend to continue as it switched its focus to improving profits. ADVERTISEMENT The world's largest mobile phone operator said it added 4.4 million customers worldwide in the first three months of 2001, compared with 7.9 million in the record-breaking Christmas quarter of last year. The company said its decision to concentrate on lifting profit margins rather than chasing customers at any cost was already slowing its growth. ``The latest quarter reflects the slowdown in customer growth post the buoyant Christmas quarter and the initial effects of the adoption of our new commercial policies,'' Chief Executive Chris Gent said in a statement. ``In the year ahead, given the levels of penetration, we expect a slowdown in customer growth, as the group's focus moves to margin improvement, customer retention and cash-flow growth, rather than customer growth and overall market share.'' For the financial year ending March, Vodafone added 30.1 million customers, taking its total to 83.4 million. Vodafone shares showed little reaction to the numbers, holding gains of more than three percent, even though the headline figure was lower than expected by analysts. Bear Stearns forecast just over five million new customers. But Christian Maher, analyst at Investec Henderson Crosthwaite Securities, said that should be taken positively because it showed Vodafone's new policies were already having an impact. He said the shift appeared to be behind lower than expected growth in Germany, where Vodafone's D2 business added 1.56 million customers. Its UK customer base rose 616,000, below forecasts for around 670,000. The figure included 200,000 new customers on more profitable monthly contracts, an unusually high percentage in a country that has driven growth through pay-as-you-go phones. ``Whilst on first glance, the numbers look short of the mark, the overall news is quite positive,'' Maher said. Vodafone and other mobile companies, under pressure to recoup their massive investments in new licences, are trying to increase the revenue they squeeze from each subscriber rather than scramble for market share. In the UK, for example, Vodafone is raising the price of its cheapest pre-pay phones next month, both to reduce its spending on handset subsidies and to persuade people to move to more profitable monthly contracts.