By Nick Kostov

 

PARIS--Iliad SA (ILD.FR) on Monday said net profit rose 16% in the first half as the French low-cost telecom company continued to win over new mobile clients with its ultra-cheap tariff plans.

Iliad said net profit rose to 162.8 million euros ($183.10 million) from EUR140.1 million in the same period a year earlier, boosted by a growing legion of mobile subscribers. Revenue meanwhile rose around 7% to EUR2.16 billion.

Iliad shook up the French mobile market when it launched mobile offers of as little as EUR2 a month in 2012, forcing rivals such as Orange SA (ORA.FR) and SFR to cut prices.

The company, founded and majority-owned by entrepreneur Xavier Niel, said it added 820,000 new mobile subscribers in the first half, giving it a 16% market share three years after launch. It now has almost 17 million subscribers in fixed and mobile, it said.

Despite prices showing signs of stabilizing in recent months, French telecoms executives have been reluctant to call an end to a brutal price war. Executives have called for a reduction in the number of mobile operators from four to three in a move they say would increase margins and allow them to boost investment.

Iliad was last year rebuffed in its effort to buy U.S. operator T-Mobile U.S. Inc. in a roughly $15 billion deal.

 

-Write to Nick Kostov at nick.kostov@wsj.com

 

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 31, 2015 02:14 ET (06:14 GMT)

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