Vodafone's annual net profit rocketed to £59.25 billion, boosted by the enormous sale of its stake in US t-venture Verizon Wireless, the British mobile phone giant said on Tuesday.
Earnings after taxation surged to the equivalent of $100 billion or 73 billion euros in the year to March 31. 1y4d68
That compared with £413 million in 2012/2013, when the group was hit by special charges.
Revenues dipped 1.9 percent to £43.6 billion, Vodafone added in a results statement.
The London-listed group agreed to sell its 45-percent holding in t venture Verizon for $130 billion in a move to strengthen its strategy, boost infrastructure investment and slash debt.
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The deal generated a huge capital gain, and the company has used part of the proceeds to return $85 billion to shareholders, and made strategic acquisitions including the purchase of Spanish cable firm Ono and Kabel Deutschland (KDG), the largest cable operator in .
"It has been a year of substantial strategic progress," said chief executive Vittorio Colao in the statement.
"The sale of our Verizon Wireless stake has rewarded shareholders for their , and enabled the acceleration of our strategy through the acquisition of KDG, the pending acquisition of Ono and our Project Spring investment programme."
Turning to the outlook for 2014/2015, Vodafone forecast underlying earnings or profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) would fall to between £11.4 billion and £11.9 billion, compared with £12.8 billion in 2013/2014.
The group added that EBITDA was expected to drop owing to investment costs and foreign exchange movements.