Bosnia largest telco's H1 profit up 4.5 p.c.

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA: Bosnia's largest telecoms company BH Telecom said on Monday that first-half net profit was up 4.5 percent at 66 million Bosnian marka ($44.7 million) on revenues of 289.5 million marka.

Officials declined to comment on the figures before the company's assembly approves the report.

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The Sarajevo-based company, which covers more than 50 percent of the market of nearly 4 million people in fixed-line and mobile telephony and Internet services, posted net profit of 144.2 million marka on revenues of 605.4 million marka in 2009.

BH Telecom, majority state-owned, is the largest of the three telecoms companies operating in Bosnia, which is made up of the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic. It operates in the Muslim-Croat federation along with HT Mostar.

Telekom Srpske, based in the Serb Republic and majority owned by Serbia's Telekom Srbija, reported last week first-half net profit down 19 percent at 45.8 million marka, with revenues down 5 percent at 231 million marka after government cash pumped in from its privatization tailed off.