TELECOMS company Vodafone has reported pre-tax losses of £13.5bn - equating to £37m a day - but the figures came in at the top end of expectations.

The group wrote off £6bn after seeing the value of some investments fall, which, together with other charges adding up to a total of nearly £20bn, plunged it into loss.

However, the £6bn write-down was less than £8bn-£20bn the City was expecting.

The group also did not write down the value of its £113bn takeover of German industrial group Mannesmann two years ago, which some analysts had been expecting.

The £6bn impairment charge related to the value of businesses such as Arcor, Cegetel, Grupo Iusacell and Japan Telecom.

It also took a goodwill charge of £13.5m, relating to acquisitions of Japan Telecom and Mannesmann, although analysts said that while pushing the company into loss, this would be largely ignored by the City and reflected an accounting principle to which every company had to adhere.

Stripping out the goodwill and impairment charges, Vodafone reported pre-tax profits of £6.2bn for the year to March 31, up 54 per cent on the previous year.

The closely-followed EBITDA figure - earnings before interest, depreciation and other charges - came in at the top end of expectations, up 44 per cent at £10.1bn.

Turnover rose 52 per cent to £22.8bn, while its customer base increased 22 per cent to 101.1 million.

Chief executive Sir Chris Gent said: "These are excellent results. The bottom line loss could be misleading. This disguises the true performance of the business."

He said: "The past year has seen the group successfully execute its adjusted strategy, delivering very strong operational performance and exceptional financial results, including the generation of substantial free cash flow."

This year he expected net customer growth of just below ten per cent, and double-digit revenue growth.

Vodafone said that in the UK it "continued to perform well in the year".

Turnover rose by nine per cent to £3.8bn, while operating profits rose by 18 per cent to £941m. The group had 13.2 million customers in the UK at the end of March, seven per cent more than last year.

Shareholders in Vodafone will be paid a dividend of 1.4721p a share, up five per cent on the previous year