Chunghwa Telecom foresees profit

Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan's biggest phone company, forecast its profit will rise by 0.2 percent next year on cost cuts, including a smaller workforce.

The company expects net income of NT$41.9 billion (US$1.2 billion) compared with NT$41.8 billion this year, Chunghwa Telecom said in a statement to the government, which owns about 65 percent of the company.

The government aims to reduce its stake in the company to less than 50 percent by next year. Chunghwa Telecom said it will cut jobs by about 2 percent to 28,819 next year from 29,319 this year. The company had 29,070 employees last year.

"All we want is our severance pay and we'll leave," said Chen Hsing-chu, standing supervisor of the Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union. The union in September demonstrated against a stake sale, concerned about job losses.

The company needs to reach an agreement with its union about the planned sale, Chunghwa Telecom Vice President Chen Cheng-chang (陳成章) said last month. Lawmakers demand that major state-run companies consult employees on any stock sales.

Chunghwa Telecom said its operating costs for next year, the amount it needs to pay for equipment, utilities and other necessities, will fall by 0.76 percent to NT$92.3 billion.

"We have to prepare this kind of a plan," said Shen Fufu (沈馥馥), a Chunghwa Telecom spokeswoman. "It's a government process."

The company in April forecast a profit of NT$41.6 billion for this year, a decline of 14 percent from last year.

Chunghwa Telecom, previously a government monopoly, faces increased competition from rivals such as Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大) and Far Eastone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信).

Taiwan Cellular expects its third-quarter profit to increase from the year earlier period because of growing revenue per user, a Chinese-language newspaper said, citing company president Harvey Chang (張孝威).

The company's average revenue per cellphone subscriber in August rose to about NT$650 (US$19.14) from NT$500 in the same period a year ago, the report said. Taiwan Cellular's August pretax profit rose by 13 percent to NT$2.9 billion from the same period a year earlier. Sales growth for Taiwan Cellular, the nation's second-largest mobile-phone operator, is limited by competition in a saturated market.

The Taipei-based company and its affiliates had 7.5 million of 23.1 million customers in the country, where handset subscriptions outnumber the population, according to Ministry of Transportation and Communications statistics for April.