Telecommunications group Vodacom on Monday reported a 4.5% rise in revenue during the year to March 2013, as data take-up accelerated and the JSE-listed group’s international segment maintained strong momentum.

The group achieved revenue of R69.9-billion in the 12 months under review, compared with the R66.9-billion recorded a year earlier.

Service revenue increased 1.9%, from R58.2-billion in 2012, to R59.3-billion in 2013.

Vodacom’s active data revenue increased 22.2%, on the back of a 22.5% rise in active data customers to 18.5-million – 4.1-million of which were within the group’s international operations, said CEO Shameel Joosub.

The company, which recorded a total of 51.7-million active customers, noted a 10.9% increase in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebidta) to R25.2-billion during the 2013 financial year, as the Ebidta margin widened to 36.1%.

Headline earnings a share increased 23%, from 709c in 2012, to 872c during 2013, owing to strong operating profit growth and the elimination of secondary tax on companies.

The telecommunications group recorded an operating profit of R18.8-billion, which was a 13.7% increase on the R16.6-billion recorded the year before.

Joosub commented that poor performance among independent service providers, persistent economic weakness and ongoing cuts in mobile termination rates, as well as lower out-of-bundle use and less calling card customers on the network hampered Vodacom’s performance in South Africa.

However, he said “strong commercial execution” – heavily revised pricing and new prepaid and contract offerings – enabled the company to offset the impact.

The local operations service revenue declined 0.4% to R48.2-billion during the year to March 2013, compared with R48.4-billion during the previous year. Data revenue increased 16.3% to R8.9-billion.

Operating profit for the local operations rose 5.8%, from R16.6-billion in 2012, to R17.6-billion in 2013.

“As a result of our continued focus on cost efficiencies across our business, Ebitda growth of 5.4% outpaced revenue growth, and the Ebitda margin expanded almost one percentage point to 38.2%,” he said.

The group’s international operations continued its strong momentum, with service revenue increasing 11% on the back of a larger customer base and increased take-up of data services.

Revenue reached R11.2-billion during 2013, compared with the R10.1-billion recorded in 2012.

Data revenue grew 106.9%, supported by 40.9% growth in active data customers to 4.1-million – representing 19.3% of the customer base.

The international operations now contributed 19% to group service revenue, compared with 17.4% a year ago.

The operations also reported an operating profit of R1.1-billion, a 200% turnaround on the loss of R74-million recorded in the 2012 financial year.

Ebitda reached R2.7-billion during the 2013 financial year – a 87.5% jump from the R1.4-billion reported in the prior year, while Ebitda margin improved almost ten percentage points to 23.6%.

Vodacom declared a final dividend for the year of 785c.