Telecom Plus Share News (TEP)

Telecom Plus, the utility firm that provides gas, electricity to telephone services, said it remains comfortable with market expectations of both earnings and dividends for the year.The group said the first half of the current financial year has seen a continuation of the strong organic growth it has been experiencing recently. Customer numbers increased at an annualised rate of 25% during the period to around 316,000 (31 March 2009: 281,175) and service numbers increased by around 110,000 to more than 904,000 (31 March 2009: 794,118).Changes in its distribution channel resulted in a slowdown in the rate at which new distributors and customers were recruited in the six weeks after the end of June.'The steps we have taken to tighten our training requirements and improve the mix of new customers can be expected to improve the quality of our earnings going forward, and I look forward to announcing our half yearly results in November,' said chief executive Charles Wigoder.