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November 04, 2009
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| KT, Korea’s top fixed line operator and No. 2 mobile operator, saw net profit rise 80 percent on-year during this third quarter, as a more stable won helped cut the company’s foreign exchange debt. The telecom giant’s sales from July to September totaled 4.82 trillion won ($4.08 billion), a 3.9 percent rise from the same period last year, on increased revenue from their wireless businesses including mobile phone and Internet services. Operating profit, however, decreased 11.7 percent on-year to 351.4 billion won. In June, KT bought out its mobile phone unit KTF to consolidate fixed-line and wireless operations under one company. KT said that it expects to save around 835 billion won over the course of three years thanks to the merger. The new KT is targeting sales of 19 trillion won and operating income of 1.8 trillion won this year. The merger was the biggest ever on the local IT market, and it has motivated KT’s rivals to follow suit. Last month, LG Telecom announced plans to acquire its telecom affiliates LG Dacom and LG Powercom. Last year, SK Telecom bought out SK Broadband. “While we are in the middle of a rapid change in the telecom market, KT will no longer rely on past successes,” said Kim Yeon-hak, chief financial officer at the telecom giant. “As we have successfully merged our mobile and fixed-line units, we will concentrate on providing new comprehensive services including fixed mobile convergence products like QOOK and SHOW.” The company’s revenue from its wireless business increased 13.7 percent on-year to around 2.5 trillion won while landline service sales decreased to 1.23 trillion won, down 4.4 percent from the July to September period last year. The on-year figures were compared to combined tallies for KT and KTF in 2008. By Cho Jae-eun [jainnie@joongang.co.kr] |
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