Budapest - Hungarian telecommunications firm said Thursday that its consolidated first-quarter net income rose by 39.5 per cent to 22.2 billion forints (134.52 million dollars), beating analyst expectations by almost 2 billion forints.

Revenue was practically unchanged, but staff cuts reduced the company's payroll costs by 13.5 per cent to 23.1 billion forints.

Taxes dropped 16.4 per cent to 7.4 billion forints as deferred taxes decreased and the company also recorded a one-off gain of 2 billion forints from the sale of property. (dpa)