Greek mobile phone operator Cosmote Mobile Telecommunications SA (I.CMT) said Wednesday first-half net profit rose more than 15% to EUR114.69 million from EUR99.43 million in the same period last year.

The result was in line with analyst expectations.

Revenue was also in line with forecasts, climbing 12.9% to EUR622.30 million from EUR551.12 million. Cosmote said the figure was driven by continuing strong growth in Greek operations where revenue rose nearly 14% to EUR574.7 million.

Revenue from Albanian operations only increased slightly, to EUR49.79 million from EUR49.23 million.

Cosmote's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 11.4% to EUR263.69 million from EUR236.73 million.

The company's EBITDA margin was steady on the year, in keeping with analyst forecasts, at 42.4% compared to 42.9% last year.

The company attributed the slight fall in its overall EBITDA margin to a decrease in the margin at Albanian unit AMC to 56.5% from 68.9% due to new mobile to mobile termination charges.

Beating forecasts, average monthly revenue per user only slipped to EUR28 from EUR28.4 versus analyst forecasts for EUR27.

As expected, a change to the accounting treatment of fixed-to-mobile revenue and the dilution effect from higher prepaid customer growth were behind the fall.

At 1114 GMT, Cosmote's shares were trading up EUR0.24, or 2.3% higher, at EUR10.92.