Vodafone Group PLC has posted a 15% rise on first half net profit, boosted by favourable currency moves, expansion at its Verizon venture in the United States of America and lower taxes reports an article over on the AP.

Vodafone made a net profit of £4.58 billion for the6 months ending the 30th of September which is up from £3.99 billion the previous year. Group revenue from continuing operations was down some 3% whilst reported revenue climbed 9% to £21.8 billion, and Vodafone didn’t break out results for Q2.

In midmorning trading on the London Stock Exchange, Vodafone shares where down 2.9% at £1.34. Analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, Keith Bowman has said while the results have broadly met with analysts expectations, a continued dependency on cost cutting measures still fails to impress.

Collin Stewart analyst, Morten Singleton remarks that management appears to be doing well in controlling the levers it can to sustain performance despite the cyclical and structural problems although there was no good news in the top line.

During Q2 Vodafone added some 9.7 million mobile customers bringing their total customer base to 303 million customers. While service revenue from their Verizon venture was up 49% to £7.87 billion which was boosted by the purchase of Alltel Corp.