Vodafone warned that its EBITA were down to 26.6 percent of sales during the five months to the end of February. Analysts expected the margin to decrease to 31 percent in the first six months. Vodafone issued the warning as supermarket chain Asda launched its own branded handsets that run on Vodafone's network. Vodafone said its U.K. revenues increased by 4.8 percent during the first two months of 2007, compared with a smaller increase of 3.3 percent the quarter before.
For more on Vodafone's profit margins:
- see this report from the Irish Examiner