Citic Telecom’s annual profit up

Citic Telecom International Holdings Ltd saw its net profit attributable to equity shareholders jump by 6 per cent year-on-year to HK$850.1 (US$106.3 million) for the whole year of 2016, but revenue generated from its local arm in the city, Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau, S.A.R.L. (CTM), fell by 12.9 per cent year-on-year.
During the reporting period, CTM’s revenue from external customers amounted to HK$4.37 billion, a drop of some HK$647.99 million compared to HK$5.02 billion for the year of 2015, according to Citic’s annual results filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday.
The company said its mobile market share in the MSAR reached 43.5 per cent as at the end of 2016, an increase of 0.2 percentage points. However, its share of the 4G-subscriber market dropped by 8 percentage points year-on-year to 57 per cent.
CTM retained its dominant position in the local Internet service market during the year, with market share reaching 98.2 per cent, despite a decrease of 1.2 percentage points, according to the filing.
Citic’s total revenue fell by 7.8 per cent year-on-year in 2016, amounting to HK$7.7 billion. The group explained the decline was due to a drop in equipment and mobile handset sales, as well as a decrease in traditional telecommunications services, such as fixed line services.
The company’s mobile sales and service revenue dropped by 18.3 per cent year-on-year, to HK$2.86 billion for the year. In particular, revenue from equipment and mobile handset sales plunged by 24.9 per cent year-on-year to HK$1.69 billion, down from HK$2.25 billion one year ago.
In addition, fixed line services revenue fell by 9.8 per cent year-on-year to HK$321.7 million.
Meanwhile, Internet service revenue rose by 10.8 per cent year-on-year to HK$922.2 million, due to ‘higher revenue from the good uptake of fibre broadband service and increase in data centre revenue.’
The company noted the increased revenues from the two segments ‘countered the impact’ of CTM’s tariff reductions of an average of 24 per cent in Macau since 2016.
The group’s revenue from enterprise solutions also climbed by 7.1 per cent year-on-year to HK$2.3 billion, up from HK$2.1 billion one year ago, of which some 35 per cent of the segment’s revenue was derived from the MSAR, the company noted.
Citic has proposed a final dividend of 10.35 Hong Kong cents per share for the year.