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Vodafone Group has said it cut 1,200 jobs across Europe in recent months as the telecoms giant aims to strip two billion euros (£1.71 billion) from its costs in the next four years.

It came as shareholders in the company approved a pay package worth £10 million for boss Margherita Della Valle.

Vodafone said its cost-saving initiatives had helped deliver the reduction in roles across Europe and in its shared operations in the three months to the end of June.

It did not specify how many UK jobs have been affected. It is understood that some of the reduction involved natural attrition, when people are not replaced after they leave the business.

The UK business, which became VodafoneThree after merging with Three UK last year, is aiming to shave about £700 million a year from its total costs and capital spending by the 2030 financial year.

Most of this will come from reducing operating expenditure, which refers to the day-to-day costs of running the business and which is being cut as a result of the two mobile networks being integrated.

Since completing the merger of Vodafone and Three in the UK last year, the company has been working to integrate the two brands, including sharing their 5G networks.

VodafoneThree had about 27 million customers after combining, but said that up to 50 million people in the UK have access to its 5G speeds thanks to the combined spectrum.

Across the group, Vodafone is targeting two billion euros (£1.71 billion) worth of cost savings between the 2027 and 2030 financial years, which it hopes will come from efforts to simplify the business and use more shared services.

Chief executive Margherita Della Valle has been leading the overhaul, which has also shifted the focus of the group on its biggest markets in Germany and the UK, as well as Africa, while pulling out of countries where it has a smaller presence, like Spain and Italy.

Ms Della Valle was handed a pay packet worth £10.13 million for the year to the end of March, comprising £1.46 million of fixed pay and £8.67 million in bonuses and long-term share awards.

Vodafone’s remuneration committee said this was a result of stronger performance and the company’s increased share price.

At the company’s annual general meeting on Monday, a majority of shareholders voted to approve the latest payout as well as plans for future pay that were set out in its annual report.

While 90.9% of votes were cast in favour of the new policy, about 9.1% were cast against.

Meanwhile, in the latest update to investors, Vodafone said that its service revenues totalled 8.6 billion euro (£7.4 billion) for its first quarter, up by a 10th compared with the previous year.

On an organic basis, service revenues increased by 5.2%, while earnings on an adjusted basis were up by by 6.7% year on year.

Vodafone said it was now expecting adjusted earnings to come in between 13 billion euros (£11.1 billion) and 13.3 billion euros (£11.4 billion) for the year, after taking control of Kenya-based Safaricom last month.

In the UK, mobile service revenues on an organic basis declined by 0.7% in the three months to the end of June, compared with the year before.

Vodafone said this was partly because of the phasing out of mid-contract price rises bringing down revenue growth per customer, after a crackdown by regulator Ofcom.

The number of UK customers with mobile contracts dropped by 48,000 during the quarter, including business SIMs, but it gained about 34,000 broadband customers.

Mark Crouch, market analyst for Etoro, says: “For years, Vodafone has promised that its turnaround would eventually show through in the numbers.

“This latest update suggests that promise is finally starting to become reality.

“While the headline revenue boost was helped by the consolidation of Three UK and Safaricom, the stronger message is that the underlying business is beginning to build momentum.”