Subs growth boosts Bouygues 1H

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French telco Bouygues Telecom enjoyed a solid 1H10, with sales up 4% year-on-year and profits broadly stable, despite declining voice and SMS termination revenues.

The carrier’s net profit fell a marginal 1% to €264 million during the period, on sales of €2.7 billion, as the firm grew its subscriber base and the mix of contract mobile customers.

Bouygues signed up 351,000 mobile subscribers during the period, taking its total to 10.5 million. The majority of its mobile customers – 78.7% - are on contracts, an increase of 3.1 percentage points year-on-year.

Fixed subscribers also grew, with 214,000 regular activations, and 525,000 Bbox routers added during 1H10.

EBITDA hit €734 million during the period, up 5% on 1H09.

Bouygues Group’s TV division TF1 boosted sales 14% to €1.2 million, and generated net profit of €74 million – up 51% year-on-year.

Overall group sales of €14.7 billion beat the €14.5 billion analysts polled by Reuters forecast, however profits of €532 million were slightly below their expectations.