Russia's MegaFon 2007 sales up 48 pct to $5.5 bln

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (Reuters) - MegaFon, Russia's third-largest mobile phone operator by subscriber numbers, increased its revenue by 48 percent to $5.5 billion in 2007, its General Director Sergei Soldatenkov said on Monday.

The company had forecast a 40-45 percent growth in revenues and expected that its net profit would equal at least 20 percent of sales.

It was not known when details of profit would be released. In 2006, MegaFon posted revenues of $3.7 billion and a net profit of $813 million.

MegaFon has around 36 million clients in Russia and Tajikistan, trailing market leaders Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) (MBT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Vimpelcom (VIP.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Sweden's TeliaSonera TLS1V.HE (TLSN.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) holds a 43.8 percent stake in MegaFon, while Altimo, the investment vehicle of Russia's Alfa Group, has 25.1 percent. (Reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva; Writing by Maria Kiselyova; editing by Rory Channing)