French conglomerate, Vivendi has reported that its first-half revenues rose by 1.9% to reach EUR 14.25 billion (US$20.6 billion), while the adjusted net income jumped by 20.2% to EUR1.83 billion (US$2.65 billion).

This performance is notably due to the EBITA increase and the SFR transaction tax impact as of January 1, 2011.

Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of Vivendi: "Over the past few months, Vivendi has reached a significant milestone. The group has acquired a 44% interest in SFR, and today owns the company entirely. We now have full control of all our assets and have simplified our organization. Vivendi has achieved an essential strategic objective on very favorable financial terms."

As of June 30, 2011, Vivendi's Financial Net Debt was EUR13.97 billion, compared to EUR 8.1 billion at the end of 2010. This change notably reflected the EUR7.75 billion payment for Vodafone's 44% interest in SFR, partially offset by the cash inflows of EUR2.9 nillion) from the sale of the remaining interest in NBC Universal and EUR1.25 billion to end the litigation over the share ownership of PTC in Poland.

SFR

For the first half, SFR's revenues were down by 2 percent at EUR6.12 billion, largely due higher competition and the decision to absorb a higher sales tax rate. Excluding the new VAT standard and regulated price cut impacts, revenues increased by 2.7%.

For the first half, SFR added 220,000 net new mobile postpaid. 34% of SFR customers were equipped with a smartphone by the end of June 2011 (compared to 21% at the end of June 2010), allowing a 30% data mobile revenue growth during the same period in 2010. At the end of June 2011, SFR's postpaid mobile customer base reached 16.04 million, improving the customer mix by 1.6 percentage point year-on-year to 76.2%.

SFR's total mobile customer base4 reached 21.06 million.

Maroc Telecom Group

For the first half, Maroc Telecom Group's revenues were down 1.5% at EUR1.36 billion. This change was due to the slight decline of 2.2% in revenues in Morocco in an intensely competitive environment, partly offset by the 3.2% increase in revenues of subsidiaries.

Maroc Telecom Group's customer base reached over 27.5 million, a 16.5% increase compared to June 30, 2010. This expansion reflected a continuing growth in Morocco (+6.4%) and a strong marketing momentum among the subsidiaries, where the total mobile customer base grew by almost 49%.

In Morocco, mobile prices decreased by 24% in one year, while outbound usage increased by 22% in one year. The mobile churn rate reached 21.7% in one year, an improvement of 5.7 points. The postpaid customer base grew by 27.7% compared to June 30, 2010, to 934,000 subscribers and the ADSL customer base amounted to 528,000, an increase of 10.2% compared to June 30, 2010.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, Sotelma delivered a strong performance with a 39% rise in its revenues in one year.