PARIS: French telecommunications group Orange said Tuesday its net profit nearly tripled in the first half of the year to 3.2 billion euros ($3.5 billion), due primarily to the sale of British operator EE.
With accelerating uptake of fourth-generation (4G) mobile and fast broadband connections as well as increased sales, Orange's chief executive said the company had the momentum needed to increase operating profit.
"The first-half results again confirm the Group's positive momentum, enabling us to reaffirm our objective of growth" in the company's own measure on operating profit in 2016, Stephane Ricard said in a statement.
Sales rose by 2.7 percent 20.1 billion euros in the first half of the year, an increase of 0.3 percent on a comparable basis.
Operating profit using the company's own measure slid by 0.6 percent to 5.9 billion euros, but increased marginally in the second quarter.
Orange saw its sales in France, its largest market where it was previously the state-controlled monopoly, squeezed 1.2 percent due the winding down of its agreement to handle calls from rival operator Free as that operator builds its own network.
However it said the number of 4G clients had nearly tripled since last year, while overall mobile customers also increased as did fixed broadband.
In Europe overall, 4G customers were up nearly three times since last year to 22.7 million at the end of June, while its number of fibre broadband customers more than tripled to 2.56 million.
Sales in Europe rose 9.3 percent (1.1 percent on a comparable basis) to 5.1 billion euros, while in Africa and the Middle East they increased by 10.2 percent (3.3 percent) to 2.5 billion euros.
Orange has been spreading its presence in Africa to tap into growing markets there.
It received 4.5 billion euros from its stake in EE after the sale closed in January, plus a 4 percent stake in BT Group.
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