South Africa’s biggest mobile operator Vodacom reported a marginal rise in annual earnings on a stronger second-half performance, but gains were capped by significant currency volatility.

Vodacom, majority-owned by UK-based Vodafone said headline earnings per share rose by 1.3% to 857 cents in the year ended March 31 from 846 cents a year earlier.

It declared a final dividend of 335 cents per share.

“Given significant currency volatility, I am particularly impressed with the strong finish the group produced in the last six months, supporting the confidence we communicated in November last year that the organisation is poised for a stronger second-half performance,” CEO Shameel Joosub said.

Group service revenue dipped 0.1% in rand terms to 120.7 billion rand ($6.69 billion).

However, it was up 11.2% on a normalised basis, beating the company’s medium-term target on strong service revenue growth from its rest of Africa operations which includes Egypt, Lesotho, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Normalised basis calculation adjusts for foreign currency fluctuations, hyperinflation accounting and excludes the impact of mergers, acquisitions and disposals.

Vodacom partly owns Kenya’s Safaricom, which is a major shareholder in the Ethiopian business.

Vodacom’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization fell 1.1% to 55.5 billion rand, but grew 7.8% on a normalised basis.

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