Telecommunications firm KT saw its operating profit surpass the 1 trillion won mark last year for the first time since 2012.
The Korean telecom firm reported Friday that its operating income swung to a profit of 1.29 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in 2015 from a loss of 406.6 billion won the previous year.
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KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the mobile carrier’s new headquarters in January in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. KT |
While revenue was down 0.1 percent to 22.28 trillion won, the firm’s net profit also swung into the black, coming in at 63.1 billion won, from a loss of 96.6 billion won a year earlier.
The losses in 2014 were mainly due to the firm’s series of business restructuring schemes, which involved the laying off of 8,200 staff. In 2014, the company paid the laid-off executives and employees a total of around 1.2 trillion won in severance pay and sold off KT Rental and KT Capital.
The company’s wireless network business saw its sales increase 0.7 percent to 7.37 trillion won. The slight increase in sales was attributed to increased penetration of Long-Term Evolution services and a surge in the mobile data usage of its subscribers.
The number of LTE subscribers stood at 128.3 million, accounting for 71.1 percent of all mobile subscribers.
The downward trend for the firm’s fixed-line business continued as the annual sales of the segment dropped 6.9 percent to 5.16 trillion won.
KT’s media and content business earned 1.66 trillion won in sales, up 10.2 percent from a year earlier. The number of subscribers for KT’s IPTV services exceeded 6.5 million last year.
BC Card, the company’s credit card business affiliate, saw its revenue jump 5.9 percent to 3.4 trillion won.
The mobile carrier also raked in 1.9 trillion won from ICT services businesses, including the one for IT solutions.
The figure was up 29.5 percent compared to a year earlier thanks to robust ICT solutions sales in global markets.
Vowing to grow in the Internet of Things, health care, and financial technology, KT chief financial officer Shin Kwang-seok said in a statement that “KT will put focus on boosting growth and profitability and generating meaningful results in new businesses this year.”
By Kim Young-won (
wone0102@heraldcorp.com)
