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SEOUL, Nov. 7 (Yonhap) — KT Corp., a major South Korean mobile carrier, reported Tuesday that its third-quarter net income had decreased 11.6 percent from the same period last year, primarily due to a wage agreement that was finalized earlier than normal and the equalization of content sourcing costs.
Net profit for the three months ending in September amounted to 288.3 billion won (US$220.8 million) on a consolidated basis, compared with 432.5 billion won from the same quarter in 2019, KT stated in a regulatory filing.
Operating profit dropped 28.9 percent year-on-year to 321.9 billion won, while sales rose 3.4 percent to 6.69 trillion won, the highest since the company went public in 1998.
The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 271.1 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
The corporate logo of South Korean mobile carrier KT Corp., provided by the company (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
KT explained that its net profit had dropped despite record sales because the company had struck a wage deal in the third quarter, instead of the fourth quarter as usual, and distributed content sourcing costs, which are normally concentrated in the fourth quarter, into the July-September period.
Excluding the wage deal results and the effect of content sourcing costs equalization, the operating profit for the third quarter reached 383.7 billion won, up 18.6 percent from a year ago, the company noted.
Sales from KT’s mainstay mobile business inched up 1.6 percent year-on-year to 1.7 trillion won due to an increase in fifth-generation network service users and stronger demand for roaming service amid a recovery in international travel.
Cable sales rose 1.8 percent year-on-year to 1.3 trillion won on increased GiGA internet and IPTV subscribers.
Sales from corporate services also gained 2.7 percent to 981.7 billion won, and revenue from its financial affiliate BC Card Co. climbed 1.2 percent to 995.7 billion won.
KT said its real estate and cloud service arms, in particular, showed robust growth.
Kt cloud Co. saw its sales soar 34.5 percent year-on-year to 193.8 billion won thanks to private cloud project contracts and internet data center business.
Kt estate Inc.’s third quarter revenue jumped 30.3 percent from a year ago to 142.3 billion won due to higher travel demand.
KT said it plans to expand its cloud business along with its artificial intelligence (AI) business.
Last week, the mobile carrier unveiled its large AI model Mi:dm, which has been trained on more than 1 trillion tokens and contains up to 200 billion parameters, which determine the AI’s capacity.
“KT will work to improve its value by pushing ahead with its ‘Digital Service First’ strategy in combination with its communications technology and information technology,” Kim Young-jin, the company’s chief financial officer, said.
nyway@yna.co.kr
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