Local mobile phone carrier Far EasTone Telecommunications Ltd (
The company also announced a stock dividend of NT$3.50 per share following its annual shareholders' meeting yesterday. Far EasTone's March-quarter revenues came in at NT$10.44 billion, with net income growing 151 percent year-on-year, the company said in a statement. It did not give a figure for pre- or post-tax income.
Because the company is not publicly traded, it is not required to issue financial results.
Far EasTone is majority-owned by Taiwan's Far Eastern Textiles (遠東紡織) with US-based AT&T owning around 20 percent. However, Far EasTone president Joseph O'Konek has previously confirmed that it is considering an initial public offering for later this year.
Far EasTone shares are closely-held and traded on Taiwan's unofficial grey market. Taiwan investment rules require a local listing before an overseas offering. The company attributed its strong first-quarter results to maintaining a high-value customer base and leverage value-added services.
At the end of March Far EasTone reported 3.7 million subscribers, giving it an average revenue per user (ARPU) figure of around NT$940. By comparison Taiwan's leading mobile carrier, Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大), recorded first-quarter revenue of NT$12.022 billion with end-March subscribers at 5.5 million.
Those figures put its average revenue per user 23 percent lower than Far EasTone's at around NT$730.
Far EasTone also said it has experienced strong growth in non-voice operations. SMS or cell phone text message traffic grew 150 percent year-on-year, and customers send on average 29 percent more SMS messages to other carriers that than they receive from customers at other carriers.
Far EasTone has 360,000 Internet service customers, nearly all of which are Far EasTone mobile subscribers. Last week, the company suffered a setback in its expansion plans when Taiwan Cellular announced its acquisition of southern carrier TransAsia Telecommunications Ltd (泛亞電信). Taiwan Cellular paid NT$13.5 billion for TransAsia, which has a subscriber base of 664,000. Far EasTone had been in protracted negotiations to acquire TransAsia and is believed to have offered a higher price than Taiwan Cellular.
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