By Najat Kantouar


Vodacom Group reported an increase in third-quarter revenue, driven by the acquisition of Vodafone Egypt along with strong customer growth.

The South Africa-based telecommunications company said Friday that for the quarter ended Dec. 31, revenue rose 27% on year to 38.92 billion South African rand ($2.09 billion), compared with ZAR30.705 billion for the same period a year earlier.

Service revenue--a closely watched metric in the telecom sector--increased to ZAR31.12 billion from ZAR24.0 billion.

Within this, South Africa service revenue grew 1.9% to ZAR15.69 billion and Egypt service revenue increased 29% in local currency to ZAR7.94 billion. In International, service revenue rose 11% to ZAR7.72 billion.

The group said that financial services revenue increased 31% to ZAR3.4 billion with $98.2 billion transacted through its mobile money platforms in the quarter.

Across the group, including Safaricom, customers reached 200 million for the first time with more than 75 million of its customers using a financial service, Vodacom said.

"During the third quarter Vodacom Group celebrated a number of key milestones including Vodacom Mozambique's 20-year anniversary. Having operated in Mozambique for two decades, its anniversary highlights the contribution Vodacom has made to digital and financial inclusion in the country and more broadly across our footprint," Chief Executive Officer Shameel Joosub said.


Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-02-24 0130ET