Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星) on Thursday reported strong growth in revenue and subscribers last year.
The three-year-old company said revenue jumped 25 percent year-on-year to NT$12.24 billion (US$413.5 million), bucking the industry’s downtrend, while the number of subscribers grew at an annual rate of 19 percent to 1.98 million people, the company said.
The company expects its subscribers to exceed 2 million people later this month.
“Looking forward, revenue growth this year will continue last year’s momentum,” Taiwan Star president Cliff Lai (賴弦五) said in a statement. “We are moving forward, posting positive EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] this year.”
EBITDA provides a better gauge of profitability for telecoms with large capital expenditure. Taiwan Star lost NT$2.94 billion in the first half of last year, widening from a loss of NT$2.83 billion during the same period in 2016.
To improve 4G network coverage, the company said it has stepped up efforts in building base stations. The company last year operated 9,930 stations, up 82 percent from the previous year.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) on Wednesday posted NT$14.82 billion in net profit for last year, outpacing all of its local peers. That translated into earnings per share of NT$5.45.
On an annual basis, the telecom’s net profit fell 3.26 percent from NT$15.32 billion, but overall revenue inched up 0.45 percent to NT$117.17 billion from NT$116.65 billion in 2016.
Taiwan Mobile attributed the growth to increases in its 4G service, mobile data revenue as well as growth in its e-commerce subsidiary Momo.com Inc (富邦媒).
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest telecom company, said net profit last year shrank 3 percent to NT$38.86 billion, better than the company’s forecast of NT$36.89 billion.
However, revenue fell 1.1 percent year-on-year to NT$227.55 billion from NT$229.99 billion, Chunghwa said.
Subscribers of its Media on Demand Internet TV service expanded 20 percent to 1.6 million people, it said.
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