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Disclaimer
Non-IFRS information
This report contains certain non-IFRS financial measures which
have not been reviewed or reported on by the Group’s auditors.
The Group’s management believes these measures provide
valuable additional information in understanding the performance
of the Group or the Group’s businesses because they provide
measures used by the Group to assess performance. However,
this additional information presented is not uniformly defined
by all companies, including those in the Group’s industry.
Accordingly, it may not be comparable with similarly titled
measures and disclosures by other companies. Additionally,
although these measures are important in the management
of the business, they should not be viewed in isolation or as
replacements for or alternatives to, but rather as complementary
to, the comparable IFRS measures.
Normalised growth
All amounts in this report marked with an ‘*’ represent normalised
growth which presents performance on a comparable basis.
This excludes merger and acquisition activity and adjusting for
trading foreign exchange and foreign currency fluctuation on a
constant currency basis (using current year as base) (collectively
‘foreign exchange’). We believe that normalised growth, which is
not intended to be a substitute for or superior to reported growth,
provides useful and necessary information to investors and other
interested parties for the following reasons:
g
g
It provides additional information on underlying growth of the
business without the effect of certain factors unrelated to the
operating performance of the business;
g
g
It is used for internal performance analysis; and
g
g
It facilitates comparability of underlying growth with other
companies, although the term normalised is not a defined term
under IFRS and may not, therefore, be comparable with similarly
titled measures reported by other companies.
Trademarks
Vodafone, the Vodafone logo, M-Pesa, Connected Farmer,
Vodafone Supernet, Vodafone Mobile Broadband, Vodafone
WebBox, Vodafone Passport, Vodafone live!, Power to You,
Vodacom, Vodacom 4 Less and Vodacom Change the World are
trademarks of Vodafone Group Plc (or have applications pending).
Other product and Company names mentioned herein may be
the trademarks of their respective owners.
Forward-looking statements
This Integrated report which sets out the annual results for
Vodacom Group Limited for the year ended 31 March 2018
contains ‘forward-looking statements’, which have not been
reviewed or reported on by the Group’s auditors, with respect to
the Group’s financial condition, results of operations and
businesses and certain of the Group’s plans and objectives. In
particular, such forward-looking statements include, but are not
limited to, statements with respect to: expectations regarding the
Group’s financial condition or results of operations, including the
confirmation of the Group’s targets, expectations for the Group’s
future performance generally; expectations regarding the
operating environment and market conditions and trends;
intentions and expectations regarding the development, launch
and expansion of products, services and technologies; growth in
customers and usage; expectations regarding spectrum licence
acquisitions; expectations regarding adjusted EBITDA, capital
additions, free cash flow, and foreign exchange rate movements;
and expectations regarding the integration or performance of
current and future investments, associates, joint ventures,
non-controlled interests and newly acquired businesses.
Forward-looking statements are sometimes, but not always,
identified by their use of a date in the future or such words as “will”,
“anticipates”, “aims”, “could”, “may”, “should”, “expects”, “believes”,
“intends”, “plans” or “targets” (including in their negative form). By
their nature, forward-looking statements are inherently predictive,
speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to
events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in
the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual
results and developments to differ materially from those expressed
or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors
include, but are not limited to, the following: changes in economic
or political conditions in markets served by operations of the Group;
greater than anticipated competitive activity; higher than expected
costs or capital expenditures; slower than expected customer
growth and reduced customer retention; changes in the spending
patterns of new and existing customers; the Group’s ability to
expand its spectrum position or renew or obtain necessary licences;
the Group’s ability to achieve cost savings; the Group’s ability to
execute its strategy in fibre deployment, network expansion,
new product and service roll-outs, mobile data, enterprise and
broadband; changes in foreign exchange rates, as well as changes
in interest rates; the Group’s ability to realise benefits from entering
into partnerships or joint ventures and entering into service
franchising and brand licensing; unfavourable consequences to the
Group of making and integrating acquisitions or disposals; changes
to the regulatory framework in which the Group operates; the
impact of legal or other proceedings; loss of suppliers or disruption
of supply chains; developments in the Group’s financial condition,
earnings and distributable funds and other factors that the Board
takes into account when determining levels of dividends; the
Group’s ability to satisfy working capital and other requirements;
changes in statutory tax rates or profit mix; and/or changes in tax
legislation or final resolution of open tax issues.
All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements
attributable to the Company, to any member of the Group or to any
persons acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their
entirety by the factors referred to above. No assurances can be
given that the forward-looking statements in this document will be
realised. Subject to compliance with applicable laws and regulations,
Vodacom does not intend to update these forward-looking
statements and does not undertake any obligation to do so.
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Vodacom Group Limited
Integrated report for the year ended 31 March 2018