Britain's newly privatised Royal Mail said rising parcel revenue and ongoing cost cuts helped the postal operator almost double its operating profit in the first half of the year.
Reporting for the first time as a London listed company after the government's high-profile sale of a 60% stake, Royal Mail said operating profit after transformation costs had jumped to £283m sterling.
That figure for the six months to September 29 was 96.5% ahead of the £144m posted the same time a year ago, helped also by a one-off VAT credit of £35m and lower than expected transformation costs in the half.
