State-owned France Telecom has reported an 18.9% rise in first-half profit, helped by lower debt and falling interest rate costs. Net attributable profit for the six months to end-June was $1.2bn, and it dismissed a report in Le Monde that it had fo recast net profit for the full year of at least $1.9bn. The 1996 accounts will be drawn up according to US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and will not be comparable to those of 1996. All estimates for the 1996 results are thus extremely premature, it said. The half-year results were the last drawn up according to the accounting methods used by France Telecom since 1991. Revenue rose 2% to $14.6bn. The state-owned company is due to be partially privatized early next year.
