Russian operator group VimpelCom more than doubled its profit for the second quarter on the back of a slight increase in revenue.

The company said the results illustrate “further solid execution of our strategy in our business units” despite being impacted by “adverse currency movements”, specifically the appreciation of the US dollar against local currencies.

The total number of mobile subscribers across the group increased by 8 percent year-on-year to hit 208 million.

Net income for the period was US$488 million, up 108 percent compared to the same quarter in 2011 with revenue of US$5.75 billion, a 4 percent year-on-year increase.

Russia remained VimpelCom’s biggest market with 55.7 million subscribers (up 1 percent) generating RUB70.3 billion (US$2.2 billion) in revenue, up 8 percent year-on-year. Mobile revenue grew 7 percent due to increased usage and sale of value added services, with mobile data revenue up 35 percent to hit RUB6 billion.

Wind increased its subscriber market share in Italy and Canada, while VimpelCom's Commonwealth of Independent States unit (Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) saw revenue hit US$411 million, representing organic growth of 10 percent (6 percent reported).

VimpelCom’s Ukraine business saw revenue decline by 1 percent to hit UAH 3.2 billion (US$395 million), despite a slight increase in subscriber numbers which reached 25.1 million.

The Africa and Asia businesses saw organic revenue growth of 8 percent to hit US$953 million (flat on a reported basis), while subscriber numbers in the region rose by 15 percent year-on-year to hit 84 million. The revenue rise was largely down to further expansion of its subscription base and revenue from value added services in Algeria (Djezzy), Bangladesh (Banglalink) and Pakistan (Mobilink).
 
The second quarter results felt the positive effects of the sale of VimpelCom’s controlling stake in Vietnam operator GTEL Mobile, although this was offset by a 16 percent increase in financing costs stemming from the previous acquisition of Wind Telecom.

VimpelCom was awarded an LTE licence in Russia during the period and announced deals with Opera Software to co-develop a mobile web browser and a direct billing service for Google Play. It also announced its participation in an M2M alliance alongside KPN, NTT Docomo, Rogers, SingTel, Telefonica Digital and Telstra.