Mobile phone company Vodafone has appointed former Eircom chief executive Mr Alfie Kane and former senior civil servant Mr Paddy Teahon as non-executive directors of its Irish subsidiary.
The move came as the company announced an operating profit for Ireland of €196 million, a 42 per cent increase on the same period last year.
There are more than 400,000 Vodafone shareholders in Ireland. The company acquired Eircell from Eircom in 2001.
The group as a whole, which now ranks as the world's largest mobile phone company, announced a £2.5 billion pound share buyback programme today as it posted a 19 per cent rise in first-half underlying earnings.
Answering demands from telecoms investors for more cash, Vodafone also said it would hike its interim dividend by 20 per cent to 0.9535 pence per share.
Vodafone shares traded up 2.5 pence at 128p on electronic brokerage Instinet, although one dealer in London said the dividend rise was slightly lower than expected.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to 6.62 billion pounds, at the upper end of analysts' expectations.
The company, which owns networks in 26 countries, comfortably beat all analysts' expectations with a 46 per cent jump in earnings per share to 4.78 pence, before goodwill amortisation and exceptional items. Vodafone added 3.2 million users, giving it 125.3 million in total.
But Vodafone reported a flattening of British 12-month average revenue per user (ARPU) at £297 pounds compared with three months before.
German ARPU fell by €1 to €312, while Italian ARPU climbed €4 to €355.
Vodafone said it expected full-year proportionate mobile EBITDA margins to beat last year's figure of 38.4 per cent, though it did not expect to match the most recent first-half's 40.5 per cent in the second-half.
In the year to March 2005, Vodafone expected the earnings margin to remain stable, leading to organic growth in proportionate mobile EBITDA approaching 10 per cent.