UPDATE 2-Safaricom bullish on FY after H1 M-Pesa boost

* M-Pesa users 7.99 mln vs 4.14 mln last year

* Revenue from data jumps by 94 pct, EPS up 8 pct

* Average revenue per user slides by 7 pct

* EBITDA grows 10 pct, margin down to 40.6 pct

(Recasts with EBITDA, adds EPS, analyst comment, shares)

By Duncan Miriri

NAIROBI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Safaricom (SCOM.NR), Kenya's leading mobile operator, said revenue from its money transfer service jumped in the first half and forecast "excellent" results by year-end, even as the country suffers from an economy sapping drought.

The company, the biggest in East Africa by market value and part-owned by British operator Vodafone (VOD.L), said users of the service, which can be used to transfer money to friends and families, as well as to pay bills, rose to 7.99 million from 4.14 million last year.

The increase in demand for its flagship mobile phone-based money transfer service, launched in 2007, part of a 94 percent rise in revenues from SMS and data services, helped boost overall turnover 17.8 percent to 40.6 billion shillings.

Revenue from M-Pesa, text messages and Internet data accounted for 18 percent of total revenue, from 11 percent last year.

While the surge in demand helped underpin a 10.1 percent rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to 16.52 billion shillings, the EBITDA margin slipped to 40.6 percent from 43.5 percent on higher operating expenses.

Safaricom, which has been on an aggressive expansion drive, said the higher expenses were from commissions related to its money transfer service, interconnection costs and the increased cost of attracting new customers.

"The fundamentals are commendable. We are very happy about the results and for them maintaining EBITDA margins stable, it is very great and the numbers will be better for 2009/10," said Leah Nyambura, an analyst at Dyer and Blair.

Pretax profit in the period edged 1.7 percent higher to 9.134 billion shillings ($121 million) although earnings per share rose 8 percent to 0.168 shillings, thanks to a year-on-year cut in the effective tax rate.

At 0815 GMT, Safaricom shares traded at 3.95 shillings, down slightly from 4 shillings at the close on Tuesday.

DATA REVENUES JUMP

Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph said the results came against a backdrop of water and power rationing in east Africa's biggest economy and higher inflation, which had raised operating costs and hit customer's disposable income.

However, while the environment had been "tough for all businesses across Kenya", he said Safaricom planned to expand its services and would "deliver an excellent set of results by year-end".

Safaricom's subscriber numbers grew to 14.5 million or a 77 percent market share, down from 81 percent last year, he said.

Although the average revenue per user (ARPU) slid to 466.5 shillings from 503.0 shillings previously, the company said it was still the highest in the industry, thanks to its wide range of services and products.

The company said this week the first 5 billion shilling tranche of its five-year 12 billion bond issue was 50 percent oversubscribed. (Editing by David Clarke and Simon Jessop)