French conglomerate Bouygues posted a lower first-half operating profit on Thursday and kept its full year outlook for rising profitability amid renewed signs of improvement at is telecom division.
Bouygues, which builds roads and owns France's biggest private TV broadcaster TF1, said first-half current operating profit fell 12.7 percent to 303 million euros ($354.24 million).
This reflected an already reported first quarter loss as poor weather conditions weighed on construction while profitability at Bouygues Telecom improved, the statement said.
First-half sales rose 4 percent to 15.743 billion euros.
According to a Bouygues poll of 13 analysts, the median forecasts included first-half sales of 15.413 billion euros and current operating profit of 284 million euros.
Bouygues kept its targets for higher profitability in 2018, and added that Bouygues Telecom was sticking to all its targets, including that of 300 million euros of free cash flow for 2019.