Vodafone reported an acceleration in first-quarter top line growth on Monday (Jul 24), driven by strong demand in Britain and improvements in Germany, Italy and Spain, marking a positive start for new chief executive Margherita Della Valle.

The European and African telecoms group also said it had appointed former SAP chief financial officer Luka Mucic to the same role at Vodafone, beginning on Sep 1.

He will replace Della Valle, who took on the top job permanently in April. She said on Monday that service revenue had improved “across almost all of our markets” as the group reported a 3.7 per cent revenue growth.

The decline in Germany, Vodafone’s biggest market, more than halved quarter on quarter to 1.3 per cent, as broadband price rises partially offset the impact of customer losses over the last 18 months, the company said.

Growth in service revenue in Britain, where Vodafone announced the merger of its operation with Hutchison’s rival network Three last month, accelerated to 5.7 per cent, boosted by strong growth in consumer and annual price increases.

In Italy, improved demand from businesses helped reduce the decline to minus 1.6 per cent, from minus 2.7 per cent in the previous quarter, it said, while Spain saw a smaller improvement to minus 3.0 per cent from minus 3.7 per cent.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

Della Valle has been tasked with simplifying the group and stemming the decline in some of its biggest markets in Europe, which have been hit by fierce competition. Reuters