Form 6-K VODAFONE GROUP PUBLIC For: Jul 24

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 24, 2015

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.

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.

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 SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE IN EACH OF THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT ON FORM F-3 (FILE NO. 333-190307), THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT ON FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-81825) AND THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT ON FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-149634) OF VODAFONE GROUP PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY AND TO BE A PART THEREOF FROM THE DATE ON WHICH THIS REPORT IS FURNISHED, TO THE EXTENT NOT SUPERSEDED BY DOCUMENTS OR REPORTS SUBSEQUENTLY FILED OR FURNISHED.

This report on Form 6-K contains Vodafone Group Plc’s (‘Vodafone’) Trading update for the quarter ended 30 June 2015.

Trading update for the quarter ended 30 June 2015

24 July 2015

Highlights

·                  Q1 Group organic service revenue grew 0.8%*; Europe -1.5%*, AMAP 6.1%*

·                  Continued recovery in Europe: Germany -1.2%*, UK 0.2%*, Italy -2.0%*, Spain -5.5%*

·                  Momentum in AMAP, South Africa back to growth: India 6.9%*, Vodacom 4.5%*, Turkey 15.0%*

·                  Strong progress on Project Spring, mobile build 71% complete, European 4G coverage 75%

·                  24.1 million 4G customers across 18 markets

·                  Progress in unified communications: 12.3 million fixed broadband customers, launched broadband in UK

·                  Second consecutive quarter of enterprise growth, service revenue +1.8%*

Vittorio Colao, Group Chief Executive, commented:

“We have made a good start to the year. Our emerging markets have maintained their strong momentum and more of our European businesses are returning to growth, as customer demand for 4G and data takes off. We continue to hit our Project Spring build milestones and customers are beginning to value the improvement in service that is resulting: contract churn in Europe is now falling and mobile ARPU trends are stabilising in a number of key markets. Our other key growth areas — unified communications and enterprise — are performing strongly, benefiting from the increased capabilities and footprint that our higher levels of investment are delivering. However, our markets are, as always, highly competitive and we therefore have to remain very focused on efficiency, cost control, and excellent value and service to customers, while continuing to deliver a good return for shareholders.”

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. For details see “Organic growth” on page 11.

1        The Group has amended its reporting to reflect changes in the internal management of its Enterprise business. The primary change has been that on 1 April 2015, the Group redefined its segments to report international voice transit service revenue within common functions rather than within the service revenue amount disclosed for each country and region. The service revenue amounts presented for the quarter ended 30 June 2014 have been restated onto a comparable basis together with all disclosed organic service revenue growth rates. There is no impact on total Group service revenues.

Vodafone Group Plc

Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FN, England

vodafone.com

Registered Office: Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FN, England. Registered in England No. 1833679

OPERATING REVIEW

Group performance

Group total revenue was £10.1 billion and Group service revenue was £9.2 billion. Total revenue declined 0.9%, including a 3.1 percentage point favourable impact from M&A and a 7.3 percentage point adverse impact from foreign exchange movements. On an organic basis Group service revenue increased 0.8%* (Q4: 0.1%*) and, excluding the impact of mobile termination rate (‘MTR’) cuts, Group service revenue grew 1.4%* (Q4: 0.9%*).

Europe

In Europe, organic service revenue has continued to recover, declining 1.5%* (Q4: -2.6%*), supported by more stable pricing environments in many markets and an improved commercial performance, as well as a positive impact from the inclusion of KDG and Ono in organic growth rates. Excluding the impact of MTR cuts, organic service revenue declined by 1.3%* (Q4: -2.2%*).

Trends in mobile continue to improve with Q1 mobile service revenue declining 2.5%* (Q4: -3.4%*) supported by continued growth in our contract base, further ARPU stabilisation across many markets and a continued reduction in contract churn across all major markets. Data usage continues to increase significantly, led by the take up of 4G, with 18.9 million 4G customers across Europe. Fixed service revenue trends continue to be strong with growth of 1.7%* (Q4: 1.2%*) driven by continued customer growth.

Total revenue declined 3.9%, including a 4.3 percentage point favourable impact from M&A, primarily from Ono, and a 9.3 percentage point adverse impact from foreign exchange movements.

Revenue

Germany

Service revenue, including KDG, declined 1.2%* (Q4 excluding KDG: -3.5%*), with continued customer growth more than offset by a decline in contract ARPU. The quarter’s organic growth rate benefits from the inclusion of KDG.

Mobile service revenue declined 2.1%* (Q4: -3.2%*), with price reductions in prior periods continuing to penetrate the customer base. We continued to grow our contract base, with 104,000 customers added in the quarter (Q4: 137,000) and contract churn has fallen to its lowest level in three years at 13.8%. The channel mix for new customer additions is also improving, with an increasing proportion of new customer additions coming from direct channels. We increased our 4G coverage to 78% and now have 5.5 million 4G customers. During the quarter we acquired 110MHz of spectrum across four bands for €2.1 billion, which will improve our competitive position by enabling us to offer even faster 4G speeds.

Fixed service revenue (including KDG) grew 0.2%* (Q4 excluding KDG: -4.8%*) with continued growth in KDG offset by a decline in our DSL business, where promotional discounts for new customers continue to impact ARPU in the promotional period. In total, we added 70,000 broadband customers in the quarter.

KDG continued to perform strongly with service revenue growth of 6.6%*, supported by continued customer growth with 102,000 broadband net additions (Q4: 123,000). The integration of KDG remains on track, with further progress on network integration and customer migrations.

3

Italy

Service revenue declined 2.0%* (Q4: -4.1%), with the improving trend reflecting a more stable prepaid market as well as continued growth in enterprise and fixed line.

Mobile service revenue declined 3.2%* (Q4: -6.3%*) with an improving trend supported by growth in enterprise and a significant improvement in prepaid, led by ARPU growth and churn reduction. Our 4G network now provides 88% outdoor coverage and we have 2.7 million 4G customers, with data usage continuing to grow and the number of customers with data add-ons more than doubling year over year.

Fixed service revenue grew 4.4%* (Q4: 8.9%*), supported by broadband net additions of 43,000. Our fibre-to-the-cabinet programme has now installed over 8,600 street cabinets across 74 cities with over 3,500 added in the quarter.

UK

UK service revenue increased 0.2%* (Q4: -0.6%*), supported by a continued strong performance in mobile consumer contract.

Mobile service revenue increased 0.7%* (Q4: 1.1%*) with growth in both consumer contract and enterprise. In consumer, we added 83,000 new contract customers (Q4: 49,000) and reduced contract churn to 15.8%, both supported by the continued popularity of our 4G plans with content. We now have 4.7 million 4G customers with 4G outdoor population coverage now at 68% (or 76% based on the Ofcom definition), including complete coverage across London.

Fixed service revenue, which is currently all enterprise related, continued to record an improving trend with service revenue declining 1.3%* (Q4: -5.7%*) though price pressures remain. During the quarter we launched our consumer broadband offer, initially in selected regions, and will launch nationwide services during the summer, with a full TV launch to follow before the financial year end.

Spain

Service revenue, including Ono, declined 5.5%* (Q4 excluding Ono: -7.8%*), reflecting continued price competition across converged bundles. Excluding the impact of handset financing, service revenue declined 3.3%*. The quarter’s organic growth rate benefits from the inclusion of Ono.

Mobile service revenue, including Ono, declined 9.5%* (Q4 excluding Ono: -9.3%*) with lower mobile ARPU reflecting price reductions in previous quarters and the impact of handset financing, partially offset by new prices introduced in the previous quarter. We continue to grow our contract base, adding 54,000 contract customers in the quarter. We now have 3.3 million customers enjoying our 4G services with outdoor population coverage now 78%.

Fixed service revenue, including Ono, grew 4.2%* (Q4 excluding Ono: 5.8%*), supported by net broadband customer additions of 41,000. We added 80,000 new cable and fibre customers in the quarter. We now cover 7.9 million households with cable or fibre, including 1.1 million homes through our joint fibre build with Orange. The performance of Ono remains in line with our expectations and cost and capex synergies from the integration continue to be achieved. During the quarter, we launched Vodafone One, a fully integrated offer with Ono, and now have 291,000 customers on these plans.

Other Europe

Service revenue grew 0.6%* (Q4: -0.9%*), with the majority of markets now in growth. The Netherlands grew service revenue by 1.0%* (Q4: 3.2%*) with mobile customer growth and growth in fixed line offsetting some pressure in mobile ARPU. In Ireland, service revenue declined 0.1%* (Q4: -6.4%*) with growth in the consumer contract and enterprise mobile businesses, plus strong growth in fixed line, offset by a decline in prepaid mobile. In Portugal, service revenue declined 2.6%* (Q4: -3.8%*) reflecting continued converged price competition. Greece returned to growth with service revenue increasing 0.4%* (Q4: -2.0%) mainly as a result of strong customer growth. Romania also returned to service revenue growth, after lapping an MTR cut, and we saw continued growth in the Czech Republic and a small decline in Hungary, after a significant MTR cut.

4

AMAP

Our AMAP region continues to grow strongly, with service revenue increasing 6.1%* (Q4: 5.8%*) with growth in all major markets. Excluding the impact of MTR cuts, organic service revenue increased 7.7%* (Q4: 7.3%*). The region continues to see strong customer growth, with 4.3 million added in the quarter, and an increasing number of our customers are now using data, with 6.6 million active data users added in the quarter. Customer usage continues to grow throughout the region, with voice and data usage up 7% and 97% respectively.

Total revenue increased 5.5%, including a 2.5 percentage point adverse impact from foreign exchange movements.

Revenue

India

Service revenue increased 6.9%* (Q4: 11.7%*), with the growth rate slowing due to the impact of regulation, including an MTR cut. Excluding MTRs, service revenue grew by 10.6%* (Q4: 13.2%*), with continued customer base growth and an acceleration in the take-up of 3G offsetting continued pressure on voice pricing.

Data revenue grew 65% supported by the addition of 3.1 million new data customers, taking the total to 66.8 million. Smartphone penetration is now 26% across the country and 47% in the four metro circles and we now have 22 million 3G customers compared to 10 million a year ago. While total voice traffic continues to grow, the outgoing rate per minute has continued to decline, reflecting increased competition. The average minutes of use per customer is lower than a year ago but has increased slightly compared to the previous quarter. Total mobile customers increased 1.6 million giving a closing customer base of 185.4 million.

Progress on Project Spring remains strong with 1,000 2G sites and 1,100 3G sites added in the quarter (14,000 2G and 21,000 3G since the build commenced), taking our 3G outdoor population coverage in targeted urban areas to 91%. We are now trialling 4G services across selected areas and we continue to expand our M-Pesa service and now have 501,000 active customers supported by 94,000 agents.

Vodacom

Service revenue grew 4.5%* (Q4: -0.2%*), with a return to growth following the lapping of MTR cuts in the previous year combined with an improved underlying performance in South Africa and across the international operations.

South Africa returned to growth with service revenue growing 2.8%* (Q4: -2.0%) with the improvement the result of lapping an MTR cut combined with strong data growth, supported by increased take up of data bundles. Data revenue increased 35% with a 46% increase in data traffic. Continued network leadership and an emphasis on customer retention has helped contract churn fall to 7.2%. Project Spring continues to progress well with 4G outdoor population coverage at 41% and 82% of all mobile sites now connected with high capacity backhaul.

Vodacom obtained approval for the Neotel transaction from the Independent Communications Authority (ICASA), and the Competition Commission of South Africa has recommended the approval of the transaction to the Competition Tribunal, both of which are subject to certain conditions. We await the outcome of the Competition Tribunal and the ICASA public commentary processes.

Vodacom’s international operations outside South Africa grew service revenue by 10.7%* (Q4: 5.3%*) with quarterly revenue trends improving across all countries, supported by strong customer and data revenue growth. M-Pesa continues to perform well, with over 5.6 million customers actively using the service across Vodacom’s international operations.

5

Other AMAP

Service revenue increased 6.8%* (Q4: 5.5%*), with strong growth in Turkey, Egypt and Ghana partially offset by declines in New Zealand and Qatar.

Service revenue in Turkey grew 15.0%* (Q4: 13.0%*) reflecting continued strong growth in both consumer contract and enterprise as well as an increased contribution from fixed line. Total mobile customers reached 21.0 million with 310,000 contract customers added in the quarter. In Egypt, service revenue grew 6.1%* (Q4: 3.4%*) with strong data revenue growth and stable voice revenue. Service revenue in Ghana grew 19.0%* (Q4: 17.2%*) driven by strong growth in customers, voice bundles and data. Total revenue in Qatar declined in the quarter, reflecting significant ongoing price competition. In New Zealand, service revenue was down 0.7%* (Q4: -2.7%*) with growth in fixed line being offset by continued price pressure in mobile.

Strategic progress

Project Spring

We continue to make great progress with Project Spring and are now 71% of the way through the mobile programme, having modernised 80,000 mobile sites, added a further 36,000 2G, 47,000 3G and 41,000 4G sites, and upgraded 71,000 sites to high capacity backhaul since the build began.

In fixed line we have extended our own next generation cable and fibre networks (‘NGN’) to a further 820,000 households in the quarter, bringing the total number of households passed in Europe to 26 million, or 62 million including wholesale arrangements.

As a result of our continued investment our customers are enjoying greater network coverage and quality. Our 4G outdoor population coverage in Europe is 75%, up from 52% a year ago, and we remain on track to reach over 90% by the end of this financial year. The dropped call rate in Europe has fallen to 0.58%, down from 0.90% when we announced Project Spring. In India, we added a further 1,000 2G and 1,100 3G sites in the quarter and remain on course for 95% 3G coverage in targeted urban areas by the end of the year.

Data and 4G

The demand for data continues to grow. Across the Group, the total amount of data traffic carried over our network has grown by 78% year-on-year (Q4: 81%), with AMAP growing 97% and Europe 64%.

We now have 24.1 million 4G customers across 18 markets and 4G now accounts for 35% of all data traffic in our European markets. We continue to bundle content packages with 4G to stimulate data usage and now have content packages available in 12 markets. In AMAP, the number of active data users across markets increased by 6.6 million in the quarter to 122.2 million.

Unified communications

We continue to strengthen our position as a leading unified communications provider. We now have 12.3 million fixed broadband customers across the Group, adding 264,000 customers during the quarter. In Europe, we have 11.5 million fixed broadband customers, adding 216,000 customers during the quarter. We now have 5.3 million NGN broadband customers across the Group, adding 0.2 million in the quarter. In addition to broadband, we now have 9.2 million TV customers across six markets in the Group and we expect to launch TV services in the UK later in the financial year.

Our organic fibre build programmes are progressing well. In Spain, we cover a total of 7.9 million households and in Portugal we cover 2.0 million. In Italy, our fibre-to-the-cabinet build had accelerated with over 3,500 cabinets installed in the quarter with the total now over 8,600.

Enterprise

Our Enterprise business has grown for the second consecutive quarter, with service revenue increasing 1.8%* in the quarter (Q4: 1.4%*) supported by improving trends in mobile and continued growth in fixed.

We continue to see strong growth across our cross-border enterprise businesses of Vodafone Global Enterprise, M2M and Cloud and Hosting, helped by significant new contract wins in the quarter. In M2M, we have increased the number of connections to 22.9 million compared to 17.5 million a year ago.

6

Summary and outlook

Trading in the first quarter was consistent with management’s expectations underlying the outlook statement for the 2016 financial year2. The Group therefore confirms its outlook for the 2016 financial 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. For details see “Organic growth” on page 11.

1        The Group has amended its reporting to reflect changes in the internal management of its Enterprise business. The primary change has been that on 1 April 2015, the Group redefined its segments to report international voice transit service revenue within common functions rather than within the service revenue amount disclosed for each country and region. The service revenue amounts presented for the quarter ended 30 June 2014 have been restated onto a comparable basis together with all disclosed organic service revenue growth rates. There is no impact on total Group service revenues.

2        Full details on this guidance are available on page 8 of the Group’s preliminary announcement for the financial year ended 31 March 2015.

7

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Service revenue — quarter ended 30 June1

Group and Regions

Operating Companies

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. For details see “Organic growth” on page 11.

1               The Group has amended its reporting to reflect changes in the internal management of its Enterprise business. The primary change has been that on 1 April 2015, the Group redefined its segments to report international voice transit service revenue within common functions rather than within the service revenue amount disclosed for each country and region. The service revenue amounts presented for the quarter ended 30 June 2014 have been restated onto a comparable basis together with all disclosed organic service revenue growth rates. There is no impact on total Group service revenues.

8

Mobile customers — quarter ended 30 June 2015

(in thousands)

Notes:

1               Other movements relate to a change in prepay disconnection policy.

2               Vodacom refers to the Group’s interests in Vodacom Group Limited and its subsidiaries, including those located outside of South Africa.

9

Fixed broadband customers — quarter ended 30 June 2015

(in thousands)

Note:

1               Vodacom refers to the Group’s interests in Vodacom Group Limited and its subsidiaries, including those located outside of South Africa.

10

NON-GAAP INFORMATION

Use of non-GAAP information

In the discussion of the Group’s reported operating results, information is 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 non-GAAP measures should not be viewed in isolation or as an alternative to the equivalent GAAP measure.

Organic growth

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 foreign exchange rates. We believe that “organic 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:

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

·                  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.

For the quarter ended 31 March 2015 and consequently the year ended 31 March 2015, the Group’s organic service revenue growth rate was adjusted to exclude the beneficial impact of a settlement of an historical interconnect rate dispute in the UK and the beneficial impact of an upward revision to interconnect revenue in Egypt from a re-estimation by management of the appropriate historical mobile interconnection rate. The adjustments in relation to Vodafone UK and Vodafone Egypt also impacted the disclosed organic growth rates for those countries. In addition, the Group’s organic service revenue growth rates for the year ended 31 March 2015 and the quarters ended 31 March 2015 and 30 June 2015 have been amended to exclude the adverse impact of an adjustment to intercompany revenue.

For the 2016 financial year, the Group has amended its reporting to reflect changes in the internal management of its Enterprise business. The primary change has been that on 1 April 2015, the Group redefined its segments to report international voice transit service revenue within common functions rather than within the service revenue amount disclosed for each country and region. The service revenue amounts presented for the quarter ended 30 June 2014 have been restated onto a comparable basis together with all disclosed organic service revenue growth rates. There is no impact on total Group service revenues.

Reconciliations of organic growth to reported growth are shown where used or in the table below.