Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor reported a 23% increase in fourth quarter net profits from a year earlier, citing rising income from its worldwide interests, an Associated Press report said.
The Associated Press report said the company, based on the outskirts of Oslo, said its net income for the October through December quarter was 7.6 billion kroner ($1.41 billion) compared to 6.2 billion kroner a year earlier.
Revenues fell 3.3% for the quarter from the year earlier period to 23.7 billion kroner ($4.31 billion), a news release said.
The company's underlying revenue growth continued throughout 2007 and it gained 30 million new mobile phone subscibers during the 12 months to make it the world's seventh largest mobile phone provider, with 143 million subscriptions, the Associated Press report said.
Telenor reported a net profit for the year of 18 billion kroner ($3.37 billion), compared to 15.9 billion kroner a year earlier. Revenues for the year were 105 billion kroner ($9.1 billion) compared to 91 billion kroner in 2006, the report added.