PARIS (Reuters) - French water and waste group Veolia <VIE.PA> said strong growth across all its geographies, and particularly its new business lines, boosted core first-half earnings and revenue by more than five percent as growth sped up in the second quarter.
Veolia's core earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 5.4% to 2 billion euros (£1.8 billion) as revenue rose 5.8% to 13.32 billion euros.
"Commercial momentum remained very solid. Growth of our new businesses has been very strong, particularly hazardous waste, up 13%, as well as plastic recycling, up 30%," CEO Antoine Frerot said in a statement.
Net profits also increased and Veolia confirmed its guidance for 2019 core earnings between 3.9 and 4.0 billion euros.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
