STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-Iliad rises as profits jump

Shares in Iliad (Paris: FR0004035913 - news) rise 3 percent after the French telecom operator posts a jump in first-half earnings as customers flock to its cheap mobile-phone contracts.

Iliad posts first-half group sales up 27 percent to 1.83 billion euros, with the mobile unit's revenue almost doubling as it lures 1.5 million subscribers.

"Group EBITDA was 585.8 million euros and comfortably surpassed our numbers," Espirito Santo analysts write.

"The company provided a breakdown of EBITDA between the fixed and mobile business, with the later now reaching 54 million euros and with the company saying that it has already reached the necessary scale in terms of number of customers to better dilute the fixed cost base."

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Reuters messaging rm://leila.abboud.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net