OAO Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s biggest mobile operator, raised first-quarter profit 59 percent from a year earlier, beating estimates, as it cut financing costs and payments to dealers and benefited from ruble gains.

Net income climbed to $512 million from $322 million a year earlier, MTS, as the company is known, said today in a statement. That beat the average estimate of $395 million of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Revenue rose 2.7 percent to $3.01 billion, the company said. Revenue may rise 5 percent to 7 percent this year, Chief Executive Officer Andrei Dubovskov said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anatoly Temkin in St. Petersburg at atemkin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm at htromm@bloomberg.net