Vodafone, Hungary, Shared, Services, Finance

Vodafone selects Hungary as the location for its Shared Service Centre

14 May 2007 | (News)

Vodafone selects Hungary as the location for its Shared Service Centre

11 May 2007

Centre forms part of three year plan to deliver greater efficiencies across the group

Vodafone is to establish a Shared Service Centre in Budapest to deal with common financial processes and transactions across the bulk of the Group.

The Shared Service Centre is set to handle simple business transactions such as accounts payable and business-to-business billing, enabling existing Vodafone employees to focus more on business analysis and strategy.

The project is expected to be supported by the Hungarian Government under its investment-incentive scheme. Budapest is already home to several shared service centres operated by multinational companies. Following a rigorous selection process, Vodafone chose Budapest for a range of benefits, including a central location and a sophisticated communications network.

“There are expected to be clear advantages in basing this Shared Service Centre in Hungary,” said Andy Halford, Chief Financial Officer of Vodafone. “The Hungarian Government has made Shared Service Centres a pillar of its national growth programme. Its support and understanding of the needs of modern business will help Vodafone to operate even more efficiently and effectively in a competitive market.”

The shared centre forms part of a three-year business transformation programme aimed at harmonising processes across the Vodafone Group to deliver greater efficiencies.

Under the initiative, Vodafone will set in place a single, integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for finance, supply chain and human resources in all operating companies where the Group has a majority ownership.

It is anticipated that the system will deliver a range of business benefits to the Vodafone Group, including the more efficient use of resources, better information sharing, enhanced business agility and a stronger customer focus.

The programme is expected to ensure that Vodafone is even better prepared to deliver on its key strategic objectives of reducing costs in Europe, supporting strong growth in emerging markets and enhancing the management of its business portfolio to maximise returns.

For further information:

Vodafone Group

Investor Relations
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 664447

Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 664444

Cautionary statement regarding forward - looking statements

This document contains certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, in particular with respect to the following expected benefits of the Shared Service Centre in Budapest, Hungary: the more efficient use of resources, better information sharing, enhanced business agility, stronger customer focus, the ability to harmonise processes and reduce costs in Europe, the ability to support strong growth in emerging markets, and the ability to maximise returns. Forward-looking statements are sometimes, but not always, identified by their use of a date in the future or such words as “anticipates”, “aims”, “due”, “could”, “may”, “should”, “will”, “expects”, “believes”, “intends”, “plans”, “targets”, “goal” or “estimates”. By their nature, forward-looking statements are inherently predictive, speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future.

There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: changes in economic or political conditions in Hungary and the markets served by the Shared Service Centre; changes to or termination of Hungary’s investment-incentive scheme; a lower than expected impact of the Shared Service Centre on the Group’s future revenue, cost structure and capital expenditure outlays; the ability to integrate the Shared Service Centre into the Group’s operations and delays, impediments or other problems associated with its establishment; changes in the regulatory framework in which the Group operates, including possible action by regulators in markets in which the Group operates or by the EU regulating the Group’s activities; and the impact of legal or other proceedings against the Group.

Furthermore, a review of the reasons why actual results and developments may differ materially from the expectations disclosed or implied within forward-looking statements can be found under the heading "Forward-Looking Statements” in our interim results announcement for the six months to 30 September 2006 and under the heading "Risk Factors, Trends and Outlook - Risk Factors” in the Group’s Annual Report for the financial year ended 31 March 2006, both of which are available on our website. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Vodafone or any member of the Group or persons acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above. No assurances can be given that the forward-looking statements in this document will be realised. Neither Vodafone nor any of its affiliates intends to update these forward-looking statements.

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