Tim Profits Up 48 Per Cent

The company reported a pre-tax profit of 955 billion lire ($627 million) in the first half of 1996, a 48 per cent rise on its profits made in the last five-and-half months of 1995, while sales were up nearly 20 per cent at 3.355 trillion lire.

The comparison was made with the last 5-1/2 months of 1995 since TIM was only spun off from state-controlled telecom holding group STET in mid-July 1995, with STET now holding around 62 per cent of TIM shares.

TIM said that its number of clients rose by 16.2 per cent in the first half of 1996 to 4.49 million, confirming the group as the fastest growing mobile phone group in Europe. The group's total number of subscribers up to September 18 rose to 4.77 million, with its analogue network system subcribers totalling 3.81 million, while its newer GSM digital subscriber numbers rose to 971,501.

The Rome-based group said it had gained 624,000 new subscribers in the first half of 1996, of which some 305,000 were for its GSM digital phones. Analysts highlighted that revenue growth of nearly 20 per cent was above subscriber growth of 16 per cent in the first half.