MOBILE PHONE group 3 Ireland made a one-off gain of 447 million Hong Kong dollars (€47 million) from its recent network-sharing agreement with Vodafone.

This was revealed yesterday in the half-year accounts published by its Hong Kong-listed parent company Hutchison Whampoa.

The accounts show the network agreement with Vodafone involved a “benefit” of 2,032 million Hong Kong dollars for 3 offset by costs of 1,585 million Hong Kong dollars.

Separately, 3’s revenue in the six months to the end of June rose by 17 per cent to €83 million.

However, the mobile operator made a loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation costs of €15 million in the period.

The company’s capital expenditure in the six months amount to €31 million. 3 posted earnings before interest and tax (ebit) of €17 million, a 157 per cent year-on-year improvement on the previous year.

The company’s blended 12-month trailing average revenue per active user (arpu) amounted to €31.86 at the end of June, up 3 per cent.

Its non-voice arpu was 57 per cent up at €18.16.

The number of pre-paid subscribers at 3 Ireland declined by 23 per cent to 367,000 in the six months.

This was due to the removal of inactive customers from its registered consumer base.

Its post-paid customer base rose by 7 per cent to 348,000. This gave it a total of 715,000 customers at the end of June, down 11 per cent on the previous year.

At group level, Hutchison Whampoa increased its revenues by 6 per cent to 194.9 billion Hong Kong dollars in the six-month period.

Its ebit rose by 10 per cent to 25.9 billion Hong Kong dollars.