PARIS (Reuters) - French telecoms group Orange reported slightly better-than-expected sales and profit growth in the second quarter, helped by improving market conditions in its home country and a strong performance in Africa and the Middle East.
The Paris-based company said quarterly revenue rose 0.5% from a year earlier on a comparable basis to 10.39 billion euros ( £9.28 billion ), beating the analyst consensus of a decline of 0.4%.
The group's core operating profit grew by 0.9% over the period to 3.38 billion euros. Orange managed to stabilise sales in France, its biggest market, signalling that the intense promotional activity there was gradually easing.
"We see some signs of improvement in the French market," Chief Financial Officer Ramon Fernandez told reporters, referring to the competitive environment.
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
