Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom, yesterday reported that net profit last month fell about 28 percent from a year earlier due to a NT$499 subscription plan.
Net profit fell to NT$2.56 billion (US$81.44 million) from NT$3.56 billion a year earlier, with earnings per share (EPS) falling from NT$0.46 to NT$0.33, while revenue shrank 14.4 percent to NT$16.69 billion from NT$19.51 billion.
“Compared with the same period last year, revenue from mobile services fell because of a higher comparison base and continued market competition,” Chunghwa Telecom said in a statement.
The company took in significant penalty charges in May last year from mobile subscribers who switched to the NT$499 plan before their service contracts expired.
“Longer mobile phone replacement cycles reduced mobile revenue, offsetting increases from multimedia-on-demand business and enterprise projects,” it said.
In the first five months of the year, net profit contracted 11.3 percent year-on-year to NT$13.78 billion from NT$15.54 billion — about 40 percent of Chunghwa Telecom’s forecast of NT$34.11 billion in net profit for this year, it said.
Despite the decline in profit, the company said it has no plans to adjust its full-year forecast.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) posted net profit of NT$1.1 billion for last month, down 27.15 percent from NT$1.51 billion a year earlier, with EPS dropping from NT$0.55 to NT$0.4 over the period, the company reported yesterday.
“Excluding penalty charges, operating profit from our mobile business did not show an annual decline in May. It even rose from April,” company chief financial officer Rosie Yu (俞若奚) said.
In the first five months, total net profit shrank 16.3 percent to NT$5.21 billion, compared with NT$6.23 billion a year earlier, while cumulative revenue dropped 0.54 percent to NT$49.59 billion from NT$49.86 billion.
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co’s (FET, 遠傳電信) net profit tumbled 23.27 percent to NT$755 million last month, from NT$984 million the previous year, with EPS dropping to NT$0.23 from NT$0.3.
For the January-to-May period, net profit totaled NT$3.7 billion, down 13.95 percent from NT$4.3 billion, and cumulative revenue totaled NT$34.58 billion, down 4.59 percent from NT$36.24 billion, the company said.
The company said that revenue and EPS for the first five months were in line with its finical forecast due to cost savings.
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