UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 6-K

Report of Foreign Private Issuer

Pursuant to Rules 13a-16 or 15d-16 under

the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Dated July 25, 2018

Commission File Number: 001-10086

VODAFONE GROUP

PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

(Translation of registrant’s name into English)

VODAFONE HOUSE, THE CONNECTION, NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE RG14 2FN, ENGLAND

(Address of principal executive offices)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.

Form 20-F x      Form 40-F o

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1): o

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7): o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Yes o      No x

If “Yes” is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the registrant in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b): 82-

This report on Form 6-K contains Vodafone Group Plc’s (‘Vodafone’) Trading update for the quarter ended 30 June 2018.

Trading update for the quarter ended 30 June 2018

25 July 2018

IFRS 15 was adopted on 1 April 2018 for our statutory reporting, without restating prior year figures. This report shows our performance on both an IFRS 15 and an IAS 18 basis for comparative purposes.

Highlights

·            Group total revenue of €10.9 billion (IFRS 15 basis), down 4.9% reflecting the adoption of IFRS 15 and FX headwinds

·            Q1 organic service revenue grew 0.3%* on an IAS 18 basis, or 1.1%* based on IFRS 15 (which is not impacted by the drag from UK handset financing)

·            Europe declined by 1.3%* (IAS 18), but grew 0.5%* excluding drags from regulation and UK handset financing

·            AMAP grew 7.0%* (IAS 18), with growth that was faster than local inflation in South Africa, Turkey and Egypt

·            India declined by 22.3%* (IAS 18) due to price competition and MTR cuts, but was down only 1.4% compared to Q4

·            Growth engines supporting solid commercial momentum: Mobile data traffic grew 57%; 196,000 broadband net adds, and a record 289,0001 converged net adds; Enterprise grew 0.9%*, or 2.0%* excluding regulation

·            Guidance reiterated: underlying2 organic adjusted EBITDA growth of 1-5%, FCF pre-spectrum of at least €5.2 billion

Vittorio Colao, Group Chief Executive, commented:

“The Group’s organic service revenue growth slowed during the first quarter, in line with expectations. The majority of our operations performed well, with ongoing momentum in Germany, further underlying recovery in the UK and continued good growth in AMAP, all of which helped to offset increased competition in Italy and Spain. Our commercial performance was solid, with further broadband market share gains in Europe, a record number of customers adopting our converged propositions, and the continued success of our world-leading IoT platform. In India, where competition remains intense, we have now received conditional approval from the Department of Telecoms for the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which we aim to close before the end of August, allowing us to unlock substantial synergies. The Group’s overall performance (including good progress in reducing absolute operating costs for the third year running) provides us with the confidence to reiterate our outlook for the year”.

Notes:

*       All amounts in this document marked with an “*” represent organic growth which presents performance on a comparable basis, both in terms of merger and acquisition activity and movements in foreign exchange rates. Organic growth is a non-GAAP performance measure. See “Non-GAAP financial information” on page 9 for further details and reconciliations to the respective closest equivalent GAAP measure.

1. Converged net additions are shown excluding the first time inclusion in Germany of prepaid mobile customers with fixed products.

2. Organic adjusted EBITDA growth excluding the impact of settlements and UK handset financing.

3. Non-GAAP performance measures are presented to provide readers with additional financial information that is regularly reviewed by management and should not be viewed in isolation or as an alternative to the equivalent GAAP measure. See “Non-GAAP financial information” on page 9 for more information and reconciliations to the closest respective equivalent GAAP measure and “Definition of terms” on page 13 for further details.

1

OPERATING REVIEW

On 20 March 2017 we announced an agreement to merge Vodafone India with Idea Cellular (‘Idea’) in India. As a result, Vodafone India is now excluded from Group figures, unless stated otherwise.

Strategic progress

During Q1, we continued to make good progress in our strategic ‘growth engines’ of mobile data, fixed/convergence, and Enterprise.

Mobile data

Data traffic grew 57% during Q1 (Europe: 56%, AMAP: 58%). Additionally, Indian data traffic quadrupled following a steep decline in data prices. This largely reflected increased smartphone usage as data allowances expand, with customers now using 3.3GB on average each month (Europe 2.8GB, AMAP 2.3GB, India 4.6GB). Our network investments have created a strong platform to capture this data demand, and we continue to have the leading or co-leading network NPS scores in 14 out of 20 markets including India.

Across the majority of our European markets our ‘more-for-more’ commercial propositions as well as personalised offers utilising advanced data analytics supported mobile revenue growth. However, contract ARPU remained under pressure primarily as a result of a mix shift towards SIM-only and multi-SIM family contracts and the introduction of EU Roam Like At Home regulation in June 2017, together with increased competition in certain markets. In AMAP data revenues are growing strongly, supported by the relative scarcity of fixed Internet access and low data penetration.

Fixed & Convergence

During the next five years around 50 million additional households are expected to adopt NGN broadband within Vodafone’s European footprint. We view this shift to NGN as a window of opportunity to capture substantial profitable market share. Gaining scale in fixed also allows us to drive convergence across our combined fixed and mobile customer base, lowering churn. We have a flexible and capital efficient strategy which combines build/co-build, strategic partnering, wholesale and acquisition options. This approach allows us to continually improve our fixed access position. We have created Europe’s largest NGN footprint covering 109 million households, of which 36 million households are ‘on-net’ (including VodafoneZiggo) and 7 million households are reached via strategic partnerships, where we enjoy superior economic terms compared to regulated prices. Pro-forma for the announced acquisition of Liberty Global’s cable assets in Germany and CEE, as of the end of Q1 we would reach approximately 115 million households, with 54 million ‘on-net’ (including VodafoneZiggo).

During Q1 we added 128,000 new broadband customers in Europe (Q1 17/18: 237,000), a slower pace than in recent quarters due to customer losses in Spain and competitor pressure in Germany. However, our NGN customer base grew by 351,000 (Q1 17/18 384,000), and our converged customer base grew by a record 289,0001 customers (Q1 17/18: 119,000). This drove sustained European fixed service revenue growth of 4.0%* in Q1.

In total, including VodafoneZiggo the Group now has 19.9 million broadband customers, of which 13.6 million take a high speed service over fibre or cable, 13.8 million TV customers and 6.0 million consumer converged customers (representing 34% of the consumer broadband base, up 7 percentage points year-on-year). Fixed now contributes 25.6% of Group service revenues (29.9% in Europe).

Enterprise

Services to businesses comprise 30.0% of our Group service revenue. Our relationships with business customers are expanding from traditional mobile voice and data services to embrace total communications, IoT, Cloud & Hosting and IP-VPN provision. These new areas offer both market growth and market share opportunities for us.

In Q1, our Enterprise business grew service revenues by 0.9%* (Q4: 1.5%*), or by 2.0%* (Q4: 2.1%*) excluding the impact of regulation. This growth was supported by our unique global network and product set and by the contribution from emerging market growth. These factors allowed us to offset continued pricing pressure in European mobile and roaming declines. Growth in IoT continued (Q1: 12.6%*), primarily driven by the increase in connections (+32% year-on year).

Outlook2

Trading during the first quarter was in-line with management’s expectations underlying the outlook statement for the 2019 financial year. The Group therefore confirms its expectation that organic adjusted EBITDA (excluding settlements and UK handset financing) will grow by 1-5%, with free cash flow generation (pre-spectrum) of at least €5.2 billion. Guidance is set on an IAS 18 basis, however IFRS 15 is not expected to have a material impact on the Group’s organic adjusted EBITDA growth (on a guidance basis), and will have no impact on free cash flow.

2

Group3

Following the adoption of IFRS 15 “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” on 1 April 2018, the Group’s statutory results for the quarter ended 30 June 2018 are on an IFRS 15 basis, whereas the statutory results for the quarter ended 30 June 2017 are on an IAS 18 basis as previously reported, with any comparison between the two bases of reporting not being meaningful. As a result, the discussion of our operating results in the Operating Review is primarily on an IAS 18 basis for all periods presented. See “Non-GAAP financial information” on page 9 for more information and reconciliations to the closest respective equivalent GAAP measures.

On an IAS 18 basis, Group total revenue was €11.2 billion and Group service revenue was €9.9 billion. Total revenue declined 2.1%, including a 2.8 percentage point negative impact from foreign exchange rate movements and a 0.8 percentage point adverse impact from the disposal of Vodafone Qatar. On an organic basis, service revenue increased 0.3%* (Q4: 2.4%* or 1.4%* excluding a legal settlement in Germany), reflecting strong growth in AMAP, which was mitigated by a decline in Europe driven by the drag from UK handset financing and EU roaming regulation. Excluding these factors Europe grew by 0.5%*.

On an IFRS 15 basis, Group total revenue was €10.9 billion and Group service revenue was €9.2 billion. The lower level of revenues compared to the IAS 18 basis primarily reflects the netting of certain components of dealer commissions from service revenues. In addition, service revenue is lower under IFRS 15 because the proportion of ARPU which relates to the recovery of handset subsidies over time on an IAS 18 basis is now recognised up front within other revenue, which is correspondingly higher. On an organic basis, service revenue growth was 1.1%*, higher than on the IAS 18 basis primarily due to the elimination of the drag from UK handset financing. At an individual country level, the impact of IFRS15 varies depending on factors such as the quantum of handset subsidies and dealer commissions; in general, organic service revenue growth rates are not materially different from the IAS18 basis, with the exception of the UK, where the significant drag from handset financing is eliminated.

3

Europe3

Reported revenue decreased 0.8% for the quarter, with a 0.3 percentage point negative impact from foreign exchange movements. On an organic basis, service revenue growth declined by 1.3%* (Q4: + 1.8%*) or 0.5%* (Q4: +1.7%*) excluding regulation, UK handset financing as well as a legal settlement in Germany in Q4. The slowdown in underlying quarterly trends largely reflected the delay of our planned price adjustment in Italy to offset the shift from 28-day to monthly billing and the commercial actions taken to reposition our offers in Spain.

Germany

Service revenue grew 2.4%* (Q4: 1.8%* excluding the benefit of a one-off legal settlement). This improvement in quarterly trends was driven by strong contract customer base growth in mobile and a lower year-on-year drag from MVNO revenues.

Mobile service revenue grew 1.7%* (Q4: 0.3%*) driven by a higher contract customer base. We added 258,000 contract customers in the quarter (Q4: 212,000) supported by lower churn. Contract ARPU declined 3.5%, however it grew excluding the mix shift towards SIM-only, multi-SIM family contracts and convergence. We retained our market leading position in Consumer NPS, and our 4G coverage is now 92% with the ability to offer 500Mbps to over 40 cities. We are currently piloting 1Gbps services in 4 cities.

Fixed service revenue grew by 3.4%* (Q4: 4.2%* excluding the legal settlement) driven by customer base growth. We added 46,000 broadband customers in the quarter (Q4: 79,000), a slower pace than in prior quarters due to competitor promotions. We maintained good momentum in convergence, supported by our GigaKombi proposition and the inclusion of prepaid mobile customers with fixed products for the first time, and added 406,000 converged customers. In total our consumer converged customer base is now 1.1 million. Our Gigabit investment plan is progressing well, and by the end of the year we plan to have rolled out DOCSIS 3.1 to 8 million households, providing the capability to deliver gigabit speeds.

Italy

Service revenue declined 6.5%* (Q4: grew 0.7%*). This slowdown in quarterly trends was primarily due to the delay of our planned price adjustment to offset the shift from 28-day to monthly billing in order to comply with the requirements of the antitrust authorities, and the lapping of price increases in the prior year. We subsequently implemented new price plans for prepaid customers in May, and for postpaid customers in June.

Mobile service revenue declined 9.5%* (Q4: -1.5%*) driven by the delay in repricing (which dragged on growth by 3.2 percentage points) and intense competition. Promotional activity in the prepaid segment remained high, driven by ‘below-the-line’ offers. Competition increased towards the end of the quarter following the launch of a new entrant in late May. As a result, mobile market number portability (‘MNP’) volumes were 17% higher quarter-on-quarter. In June, we launched a new secondary brand to specifically address the needs of customers in the value segment of the market. During the quarter we maintained our market leading network and NPS positions in consumer, supported by the success of the ‘Vodafone Happy’ loyalty programme.

Fixed line service revenue grew 7.1%* (Q4: 11.1%*) with the slowdown in quarterly trends reflecting the delay in repricing. Our commercial momentum remained strong, having added 61,000 broadband households (Q4: 100,000), and in total we now serve 2.6 million customers. Through our owned NGN footprint and our strategic partnership with Open Fiber, we now cover 5.5 million households. During the quarter we also added 63,000 converged customers, taking our total converged customer base to 806,000.

4

UK

Service revenue declined 4.9%* (Q4: -3.4%*), impacted by the drag from handset financing which weighed on organic service revenue by 5.4 percentage points (Q4: 4.4 percentage points). Excluding the impact of handset financing and regulation our underlying performance continued to improve (Q1: +1.8%*, Q4: +1.4%*). This was driven by growth in consumer mobile and fixed line, as well as the stabilisation of enterprise fixed, and reflects the substantial operational improvements and commercial actions taken over the past year.

Mobile service revenue declined 7.9%* (Q4: -5.7%*), but grew 0.8%* (Q4: 0.7%*) excluding handset financing and regulation. This underlying growth was supported by an RPI-linked price increase (effective from 1 April) and a higher contract customer base, partially offset by lower MVNO revenue. Our commercial momentum accelerated in the quarter with 77,000 contract customers added (Q4: 6,000) excluding Talkmobile, our low-end mobile brand which is being phased out. This was supported by our low contract churn rate of 14.0% (Q4: 15.9%) and our best ever consumer net promoter scores.

Fixed service revenue grew 5.3%* (Q4: 3.6%) driven by continued strong momentum in consumer broadband and the stabilisation of Enterprise revenues. Following 52,000 consumer broadband net additions in the quarter, in total we now serve 435,000 broadband customers. In Enterprise, our commercial performance improved reflecting increased sales in our local enterprise segment.

Spain

Service revenue declined 2.2%* (Q4: 1.0%*). The slowdown in quarterly trends reflected the commercial actions taken in May in order to improve the competitiveness of our offers, particularly in the value segment, which more than offset the benefit of price increases in prior periods and a higher customer base compared to a year ago.

Competition in the market remained high during Q1, resulting in a 25-30% increase in market portability volumes across both mobile and fixed, which was reflected in a significant increase in our churn rates. Having implemented new commercial actions, our commercial performance began to improve. We grew our mobile contract base by 141,000, an improvement compared to the prior quarter, however our fixed and TV customer bases declined by 49,000 and 32,000. Vodafone One, our fully integrated fixed, mobile and TV service, reached 2.5 million households by the end of the quarter, up 66,000 year-on-year.

We maintained our market leading NPS position in consumer, and further improved our market leading network position with 4G coverage of 96% and an NGN footprint covering 20.9 million households (of which 10.3 million are on-net). Going forward, unless football rights are on profitable terms, we intend to focus our content strategy on premium movies and TV series.

Other Europe

Service revenue grew 2.6%* (Q4: 3.3%*). In Ireland, service revenue grew 1.7%* (Q4: 4.3%*), with the slowdown in quarterly trends reflecting a lower rate of growth in Enterprise fixed. In Portugal, service revenue grew 3.6%* (Q4: 3.1%*), driven by continued customer base growth in fixed line. Greece service revenue grew 2.1%* (Q4: 3.3%*) with the quarter-on-quarter slowdown reflecting the lapping of fixed line price increases in the prior year.

VodafoneZiggo Joint Venture

VodafoneZiggo will report calendar Q2 results on 8 August 2018.

5

AMAP3

Revenue in AMAP decreased 6.0%, with strong organic growth offset by a 10.5 percentage point negative impact from foreign exchange movements, particularly with regards to the Turkish lira, and a 5.1 percentage point adverse impact from the disposal of Vodafone Qatar. On an organic basis service revenue grew 7.0%* (Q4: 7.8%*) driven by continued strong commercial momentum and data growth in South Africa, Turkey, and Egypt.

Vodacom

Vodacom Group service revenue grew 5.1%* (Q4: 5.8%*), supported by strong customer additions and data growth in South Africa, as well as growing demand for data and M-Pesa transactions in Vodacom’s International operations.

In South Africa, service revenue grew 4.9%* (Q4: 5.2%*). This was supported by continued strong customer base growth in prepaid and an improved performance in Enterprise. We added 1.6 million prepaid customers in the quarter, taking our total prepaid customer base to 46.4 million, an increase of 5.3% year-on-year.

Data revenue grew by 9.4%* (Q4: 13.1%*) and now represents 44% of total service revenue. We continued to drive data bundle adoption, which provides customers with a worry-free experience by reducing their exposure to out-of-bundle charges. Our successful pricing strategy has lowered the effective price per megabyte by 17% while driving a 32% increase in data bundle sales. In total we now have 20.2 million data customers, of which 8.1 million are on 4G, up 46% year-on-year. Voice revenue declined 2.6%*, an improvement on the prior year, as the success of our personalised voice bundle strategy through our ‘Just 4 You’ platform mitigated a 10% reduction in the effective rate per minute. We maintained our market leading NPS and network positions, with 4G coverage now reaching 82%.

Vodacom’s International operations outside of South Africa, which represent 23% of Vodacom Group service revenue, grew 9.4%* (Q4: 11.1%*). This was driven by strong growth in Mozambique and Lesotho, and sustained growth in the DRC and Tanzania.

Other AMAP

Service revenue grew 9.4%* (Q4: 10.2%*) with strong local currency growth in Turkey and Egypt. This growth excludes the contribution of Vodafone Qatar in all periods, following the sale of our stake in March 2018.

In Turkey, service revenue grew 14.0%* (Q4: 14.3%*) supported by good growth in consumer contract and data revenue. Egypt service revenue grew 16.7%* (Q4: 18.7%*) driven by rising data penetration and usage.

6

India3

On 20 March 2017, Vodafone announced an agreement to combine its subsidiary, Vodafone India (excluding its 42% stake in Indus Towers), with Idea Cellular. The combined company will be jointly controlled by Vodafone and the Aditya Birla Group. Vodafone India has been classified as discontinued operations for Group reporting purposes.

Service revenue declined by 22.3%* (Q4: -21.2%*) reflecting cuts to both domestic and international MTRs in prior quarters and intense ongoing price competition between the market leader and the new entrant. Excluding the impact of MTR cuts, service revenue declined by 9.6%* (Q4: -9.4%*); on a sequential basis, local currency revenue excluding MTRs declined 0.2% quarter-on-quarter (Q4: -1.6%), as prepaid bundle prices remained broadly stable during the quarter.

We retained our market leading NPS position, supported by focused investments in our leadership circles, with 4,900 4G sites added during the quarter. Consequently, we continued to retain our high value customers albeit at lower price levels, with contract ARPU declining by 20% and prepaid ARPU by 28% in the quarter. This pricing pressure was mitigated as customers consolidated spending onto a single-SIM following the increased penetration of ‘unlimited’ offers, which have now been adopted by 29% of our prepaid customer base. Our total customer base declined by 3.0 million quarter-on-quarter, reflecting the ‘SIM consolidation’ trend across the market, and now totals 219.7 million. The number of data users has continued to increase; we now have 77 million data users of which 30.9 million are 4G.

In July we received conditional regulatory approval from the Department of Telecoms (DoT) for the merger of Vodafone India with Idea Cellular. On behalf of the future merged entity, Idea has subsequently paid spectrum liberalisation fees of €0.5 billion, and has also provided a bank guarantee to cover certain disputed demands which are the subject of ongoing court cases. Our target is to close the merger before the end of August, enabling us to make a fast start on capturing substantial cost synergies.

We are also making good progress in securing the necessary regulatory approvals for the announced merger of Indus Towers Limited into Bharti Infratel Limited. In July we received approval from the Competition Commission and from SEBI, and we expect the merger to close before the end of March 2019.

Notes:

*         All amounts in this document marked with an “*” represent organic growth which presents performance on a comparable basis, both in terms of merger and acquisition activity and movements in foreign exchange rates. Organic growth is a non-GAAP performance measure. See “Non-GAAP financial information” on page 9 for further details and reconciliations to the respective closest equivalent GAAP measure.

1       Converged net additions are shown excluding the first time inclusion in Germany of prepaid mobile customers with fixed products.

2       Full details on this guidance are available on page 6 of the Group’s year end results announcement for the year ended 31 March 2018.

3     The Operating Review discussion is primarily performed on an IAS 18 basis. 2018 information on an IAS 18 basis and percentage movements on an IAS 18 basis are non-GAAP performance measures. See “Non-GAAP financial information” on page 9 for more information and reconciliations to the closest respective equivalent GAAP measure and “Definition of terms” on page 13 for further details.

7

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Revenue – quarter ended 30 June1

Operating Companies

Note:

1.             The revenue information above is presented on an IAS 18 basis and an IFRS 15 basis for all periods. 2018 information on an IAS 18 basis and 2017 information on an IFRS 15 basis are non-GAAP performance measures. See “Non-GAAP financial information” on page 9 for more information and reconciliations to the closest respective equivalent GAAP measure and “Definition of terms” on page 13 for further details.

8

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL INFORMATION

In the discussion of the Group’s reported operating results, non-GAAP performance measures are presented to provide readers with additional financial information that is regularly reviewed by management. 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, certain information presented is derived from amounts calculated in accordance with IFRS but is not itself an expressly permitted GAAP measure. Such measures should not be viewed in isolation or as an alternative to the equivalent GAAP measure.

Further information on the use of non-GAAP performance measures is outlined on pages 207 to 217 of the Group’s annual report for the financial year ended 31 March 2018.

IAS 18 basis and IFRS 15 basis

Following the adoption of IFRS 15 “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” on 1 April 2018, the Group’s statutory results for the quarter ended 30 June 2018 are on an IFRS 15 basis, whereas the statutory results for the quarter ended 30 June 2017 are on an IAS 18 basis as previously reported, with any comparison between the two bases of reporting not being meaningful. As a result, the discussion of our operating results in the Operating Review is primarily performed on an IAS 18 basis for all periods presented.

We believe that the IAS 18 basis metrics for the quarter ended 30 June 2018, which are not intended to be a substitute for, or superior to, our reported metrics on an IFRS 15 basis, provide useful information to allow comparable growth rates to be calculated. A reconciliation of service revenue and revenue to the statutory IFRS 15 basis for the quarter ended 30 June 2018 is set out on pages 10 and 12 respectively.

In addition, to assist investors and other interested parties in understanding the impact of IFRS 15 on the Group’s results, page 12 includes pro forma results for the quarter ended 30 June 2017 on an IFRS 15 basis, and associated IFRS 15 growth and organic growths and a reconciliation to the statutory IAS 18 basis for the quarter ended 30 June 2017.

Further information on the impact of adopting IFRS 15 is outlined on pages 111 to 112 of the Group’s annual report for the financial year ended 31 March 2018.

Service revenue

Service revenue comprises all revenue related to the provision of ongoing services including, but not limited to, monthly access charges, airtime usage, roaming, incoming and outgoing network usage by non-Vodafone customers, interconnect charges for incoming calls and, with effect from 1 April 2018, excludes international wholesale voice transit revenues. We believe that it is both useful and necessary to report this measure for the following reasons:

·        it is used for internal performance reporting;

·        it is used in setting director and management remuneration; and

·        it is useful in connection with discussion with the investment analyst community.

A reconciliation of reported service revenue to the respective closest equivalent GAAP measure, revenue, is provided where used in the Operating Review on pages 3 to 7.

Organic growth

All amounts in this document marked with an “*” represent “organic growth”, which presents performance on a comparable basis in terms of merger and acquisition activity and foreign exchange rates. Whilst organic growth is neither intended to be a substitute for reported growth, nor is it superior to reported growth, we believe that these measures provide useful and necessary information to investors and other interested parties for the following reasons:

·      it provides additional information on underlying growth of the business without the effect of certain factors unrelated to its operating performance;

·      it is used for internal performance analysis; and

·      it facilitates comparability of underlying growth with other companies (although the term “organic” is not a defined term under IFRS and may not, therefore, be comparable with similarly titled measures reported by other companies).

The Group’s organic growth rates for all periods exclude the results of Vodafone India (excluding its 42% stake in Indus Towers), which are now reported in discontinued operations, and the results of Vodafone Qatar following its disposal in the 2018 financial year. In addition, operating segment organic service revenue growth rates for all quarters have been amended to exclude the impact of changes to intercompany interconnect rates and the impact of excluding international wholesale voice transit revenues from service revenue with effect from 1 April 2018.

We have not provided a comparative in respect of organic growth rates as the current rates describe the change between the beginning and end of the current period, with such changes being explained by the commentary in this news release. If comparatives were provided, significant sections of the commentary from the news release for prior periods would also need to be included, reducing the usefulness and transparency of this document.

Reconciliations of organic growth to reported growth on an IAS 18 basis are shown in the tables below.

9