Paris - French telecom group France Telecom/Orange reported a plunge in net profit for the first half of the year on Thursday, but held to its forecasts.
The group said that net profit had fallen by 38% to €1.2bn ($1.58bn) mainly because of a 14.2% slump in earnings before interest, tax and amortisation to €495m.
But the group said it was holding to its targets for the full year.
The company said that sales had fallen by 5.7% to €10.6bn.
"The firm advances in Spain and the Africa, Middle East zone compensate partly for a fall of sales in France, in Poland and in Belgium," the company said in a statement.
The price of shares in the group was showing a fall of 4.65% to €7.39 in early trading. The overall CAC 40 index of leading shares was down 0.18%.