London, May 16, 2026, 21:05 (BST)
- Vodafone closed Friday at 110.8 pence, down 4.48%, while the FTSE 100 fell 1.71%.
- The stock had touched 122.05 pence on Monday, its highest level since August 2022.
- Germany remains the main doubt around Vodafone’s turnaround, analysts said.
LONDON — Vodafone Group shares head into the new week under pressure after a sharp Friday fall, as investors looked past higher profit guidance and focused again on the slow repair job in Germany, the company’s biggest market.
The London-listed stock last traded at 110.8 pence on Friday, down 4.48% on the day, with 101.48 million shares changing hands. The FTSE 100 was down 1.71%, so Vodafone’s drop stood out even in a weak tape.
That matters now because the selloff came only days after the shares hit 122.05 pence, a level Reuters said was the highest since August 2022. The move has reopened the central question around Chief Executive Margherita Della Valle’s plan: whether a simpler Vodafone can grow fast enough to offset the drag from Germany.
Vodafone said on Tuesday that adjusted EBITDAaL — adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation after leases, a telecoms cash-profit measure — rose 4.5% organically to 11.4 billion euros in the year to March. Organic growth strips out items such as currency moves and mergers so investors can compare the underlying business more cleanly.
For the current financial year, Vodafone forecast adjusted EBITDAaL of 11.9 billion euros to 12.2 billion euros and adjusted free cash flow of 2.6 billion euros to 2.9 billion euros. Free cash flow is the cash left after operating and investment spending, a key figure for debt, dividends and buybacks.
Della Valle said the group now had “broad-based momentum” after three years of restructuring and was “well set for mid-term growth.” Vodafone has exited Spain and Italy, agreed to sell its Dutch VodafoneZiggo stake to Liberty Global, and moved to take full ownership of VodafoneThree, its UK business, after buying out CK Hutchison’s 49% stake. Reuters
But Germany remains the weak patch. Vodafone said German organic service revenue fell 0.2% in the year, although it improved to 1.3% growth in the fourth quarter. The company cited competitive pressure in mobile, the last impact of a German TV law change and pressure on average revenue per user, or ARPU, the amount each customer spends.
“Germany remains the key drag,” Matt Dorset, equity research analyst at Quilter Cheviot, wrote after the results. He said broadband and mobile net additions were both negative for the year and worsened in the fourth quarter, underlining the challenge of stabilising Vodafone’s largest market. Quilter
Dorset said Vodafone’s valuation was below both its own history and the wider sector, but added that “valuation support alone is unlikely to drive a sustained re-rating” without clearer proof that Germany has turned. Quilter
Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, wrote that Vodafone’s reshaped group is “smaller and less geographically diverse, but more focused.” Even so, he said net debt had risen again to 25.4 billion euros, partly because of VodafoneThree integration, and called it “an ominous weight on the group.” Interactive Investor
The competitive context is tight. Vodafone is Germany’s second mobile operator after Deutsche Telekom, according to AJ Bell’s company profile, while the UK merger with Three gives Vodafone a bigger base in a market where scale is central to network investment.
There was also weekend news from India, where Vodafone Idea reported a surprise fourth-quarter profit after an Aditya Birla Group investment. Reuters said the Indian operator was formed from the merger of Vodafone Group’s Indian arm and Idea Cellular and has been trying to reduce debt and fund network expansion.
The week ahead is light on scheduled company news. Vodafone’s own calendar lists the next formal trading update for July 27, when it is due to report first-quarter FY27 numbers, leaving traders to price the stock off the earnings reaction, Germany commentary and any read-through from Vodafone Idea.
The risk is that the market’s patience runs thin. If German customer losses persist, or if UK merger savings take longer to show up in cash flow, Vodafone’s higher earnings guide may not be enough to protect the shares after their strong run over the past year.
