Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom service provider, on Monday reported that net profit last year increased 1.9 percent following the debut of 5G services, its first annual growth since 2015.
Net profit expanded to NT$33.42 billion (US$1.17 billion), up from NT$32.79 billion in 2019, and surpassed the company’s forecast of NT$30.91 billion to NT$32.47 billion.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$4.31, up from NT$4.23 in 2019.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Revenue last year remained little changed at NT$207.61 billion, up from NT$207.52 billion in 2019, but falling short of the company’s guidance of NT$214.1 billion to NT$215.29 billion.
Revenue from corporate customers, value-added services and handset sales offset a continual decline in revenue from voice calls, mobile services and roaming services, the company said, adding that 5G services gradually boosted its average revenue per user (ARPU).
Taiwan Mobile Co’s (台灣大) net profit last year fell 9.54 percent to NT$11.29 billion, down from NT$12.48 billion in 2019, due to 5G spectrum amortization and spending on 5G infrastructure.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$4.01, down from NT$4.51 in 2019, the company said.
Last year’s profit was better than the firm’s forecast of NT$9.47 billion, or earnings per share of NT$3.96.
By the end of last year, Taiwan Mobile had 400,000 5G subscribers, it said, adding that the higher tariffs helped slow a decline in mobile service revenue.
For the whole of last year, its postpaid ARPU fell to NT$657 from NT$722 in 2019, the firm said.
Taiwan Mobile’s revenue increased 6.78 percent to NT$132.86 billion, from NT$124.42 billion in 2019, thanks to a greater contribution from its e-commerce subsidiary Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體). More than half of Taiwan Mobile’s revenue came from Momo.com, which saw revenue soar about 30 percent to NT$67.2 billion last year from NT$51.83 billion in 2019.
However, Taiwan Mobile’s revenue fell below its guidance of NT$134.53 billion.
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co’s (遠傳電信) net profit last year fell 4.24 percent to NT$8.35 billion — beating its guidance of NT$8.02 billion — from NT$8.72 billion in 2019.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$2.56, down from NT$2.68 in 2019, the company said.
Revenue fell 5.21 percent to NT$79.5 billion from NT$83.87 billion in 2019 — missing the company’s guidance of NT$86.76 billion — despite annual growth of 13 percent from new services, including information and communications technology solutions, cloud-based programs and Internet-of-Things services.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products