KUWAIT CITY (AFP) -Kuwaiti telecoms giant MTC announced Friday net profits of 149 million dinars (517 million dollars) in the first half of the year, a modest seven percent rise on the same period last year.

Mobile Telecommunications Co. netted record revenues of 2.8 billion dollars in the first six months of 2007, a massive 62 percent increase over the 1.73 billion dollars posted in the same period last year, a statement said.

Net profits for the first half of 2006 were recorded at 482 million dollars and hit a record 1.056 billion dollars for the whole year.

The company’s customer base increased 40 percent to 32.15 million on June 30 compared to 22.9 million subscribers a year ago.

“On the back of excellent results for 2006, we are delighted that MTC continues its excellent performance in the first half of 2007,” said CEO Saad Al-Barrak.

“Our extensive investments in license acquisitions and upgrading networks to better serve our customers are bearing fruit and we are confident that we can continue to grow in the markets that we serve” he said.

MTC now operates in 20 Middle Eastern and African countries following a number of major multi-billion-dollar acquisitions.

The company recently won the third mobile licence in Saudi Arabia for 6.1 billion dollars. It is slated to start operations early next year.

MTC, in which the government has a 24.6 percent stake, saw its capitalisation more than double to 29 billion dollars from 14 billion dollars a year ago.

Barrak said MTC is working to become one of the top 10 global telecom companies by 2011.

It is one of two mobile operators in Kuwait, along with the National Telecommunications Co (Wataniya). A third company is currently being established with operations expected in the first quarter of 2008.