The merger of Hutchison Australia and Vodafone Australia has buoyed Hutchison as the company posted a $17.9 million first-half net profit. The company will continue its plan to discontinue the 3 mobile brand.

Before the merger that brought to existence Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), Hutchison spent more than $3 billion to establish itself in the country. However, this had little effect to its underlying profit. The $17.9m profit for the six months to June 30 was a $53m improvement on the same period last year.

"We're really pleased with our performance, the revenue, customer growth, the synergies we've obtained from the merger and what's come out in the bottom line. The market continues to be competitive and we continue to rise to that and will continue lead in value," said Nigel Dews, VHA's chief executive.

Revenues for the period increased 29 per cent to $1.18bn from last year, due to VHA's ability to attract 539,000 new customers. The figures take the total number of new users to its network to 1.1 million customers since completion of the merger.

In yesterday's trade, shares in Hutchison rose 1c, up 14 per cent, to close at 10c.