Bouygues beats core profit expectations in H1, raises telecoms target

(Reuters) - French conglomerate Bouygues reported on Tuesday that core earnings surpassed analysts' expectations for the first half of the year and raised its telecoms division's targets for the full year.

The construction, telecoms and media group posted a current operating profit of 492 million euros ($505.23 million) for the six months to June, ahead of analysts' median forecast of 409 million euros according to a company-compiled poll.

It now expects Bouygues Telecom's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) after leases to increase by over 8% in 2022, against around 7% previously.

In addition, Bouygues Telecom replaced its 2022 sales from services growth target of around 5% with a sales billed to customers growth target of above 5%, which it said was "more representative of its performance".

($1 = 0.9738 euros)

(Reporting by Valentine Baldassari and Elitsa Gadeva; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)