MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - MegaFon, Russia's third largest mobile operator, said on Thursday its U.S. GAAP net profit grew 20.2% year-on-year in January-March 2009 to 11.13 billion rubles ($358 million).

MegaFon, which was established in 2002, said its revenues in the reporting period increased 11.7% to 42.2 billion rubles ($1.4 billion), and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 10.3% to 20.9 billion rubles ($672 million).

MegaFon attributed its net profit growth in the reporting period to the "effective policy of operational cost management, an additional effect from hedging operations and the company's growing interest income from the placement of freely available funds."

MegaFon had 43.5 million subscribers in Russia in January-March 2009.