London, May 12, 2026, 09:19 BST
Vodafone slipped 3.0% to 116.80 pence in London morning action on Tuesday, despite the telecoms company projecting improved earnings for the coming year and pointing to a streamlined business after a three-year shakeup. On Monday, the shares hit their highest mark since August 2022.
The stakes are rising as investors look to see if Vodafone’s rapid share-price surge holds up through CEO Margherita Della Valle’s next act: taking full command of VodafoneThree in the UK, turning things around in Germany, and keeping cash returns flowing. The company has already shed weaker businesses in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands—now, it’s doubling down on Germany, the UK, and Africa.
Vodafone posted total revenue of €40.5 billion for the year ended March 31, marking an 8.0% increase, driven by service revenue gains and folding in Three UK. Service revenue jumped 8.8% to €33.5 billion. Adjusted EBITDAaL—Vodafone’s profit metric after lease expenses—was up 3.8% at €11.4 billion.
“We are now well set for mid-term growth,” Della Valle said in the company’s results statement, pointing to Vodafone’s transformation over the past three years. The company is “now a simpler company with a stronger growth outlook,” she added. Vodafone
Sellers stuck around. Adjusted EBITDAaL landed at €11.35 billion, missing the €11.48 billion consensus the company had gathered. Net debt jumped, too—up to €25.41 billion from €22.40 billion. The earnings beat? Not quite as straightforward as initial guidance implied.
Germany is still Vodafone’s key battleground. The company reported a 0.2% drop in organic service revenue for the year in its biggest market, but things picked up late—fourth-quarter growth hit 1.3%. Blame fell on stiff mobile competition and the lingering effects of a TV law change. Offsetting those: stronger wholesale sales, rising broadband ARPU, and solid demand for digital services from business customers.
Vodafone is set to acquire CK Hutchison’s 49% holding in VodafoneThree for £4.3 billion, a move that would hand the telecom giant complete control of the UK’s biggest mobile operator. The agreement was unveiled last week. Closing is targeted for the second half of 2026, pending sign-off under the UK National Security and Investment Act.
The deal marks Vodafone’s major move. According to the company, its merged UK operations are already sharing networks on 10,000 radio sites—sooner than expected. By fiscal 2030, they’re targeting £700 million in annual cost and capex synergies. Della Valle called the post-merger progress “remarkable,” noting that full control would position Vodafone to accelerate deployment of one of Europe’s leading 5G networks. Investegate
The competitive landscape is tight, yet significant. By joining forces in VodafoneThree, Vodafone boosts its position versus BT’s EE and Virgin Media O2, as the UK mobile sector has shrunk to just three main networks from four. Last week, Reuters reported that, following the UK merger, the new venture edged past both EE and O2 in size.
There’s no consensus among analysts. UBS kept its “sell” call on Vodafone this Monday, sticking with a 95 pence target—about 21.5% below the stated share price, according to MarketBeat. Recent ratings are all over the map: Citigroup holds “neutral”, JPMorgan opts for “underweight”, while Berenberg and Deutsche Bank stay on “buy”. MarketBeat
Technical traders were tracking the rally ahead of the results. According to TradingView via Invezz, Vodafone shares in London pushed up to roughly 118 pence—almost double their December low—forming a so-called “golden cross,” the chart pattern where a shorter-term moving average overtakes a longer-term one. Chart watchers tend to treat that as a bullish sign. Still, Tuesday’s drop made clear that expectations on earnings had shifted higher. TradingView
The danger: turnaround momentum could be shakier than the latest rally in shares suggests. Germany barely scraped back into growth for the quarter. Portugal’s still feeling the squeeze. UK business revenue took a hit from planned contract exits. And that VodafoneThree buyout? It bumps up leverage, even with control issues streamlined.
Vodafone bumped up its FY26 total dividend by 2.5%, setting it at 4.6125 euro cents per share. The company also wrapped up the last €500 million leg of its latest €2 billion buyback on May 11. Looking into FY27, Vodafone expects adjusted EBITDAaL somewhere between €11.9 billion and €12.2 billion, with adjusted free cash flow (after operations and investments) projected at €2.6 billion to €2.9 billion.
