Chunghwa Telecom Forecasts 2011 Revenue & EPS to Hit New Highs

Taipei, Feb. 25, 2011 (CENS)--The Board of directors of Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. recently passed the company's financial projections for 2011, which sets revenue at NT$190.02 billion (US$6.33 billion at US$1:NT$30), pre-tax income at NT$54.43 billion (US$1.8 billion) and after-tax net income at NT$45.73 billion (US$1.5 billion), or NT$5.87 per share.

Based on the projections, industry executives pointed out that the company's revenue and earning per share (EPS) will hit new highs.

The company's chief finance officer, S. Yieh, ascribed the record earnings projected for this year mostly to the company's 20% reduction in capital, which as a result stood at NT$77.57 billion (US$2.5 billion). Usually, corporate capital cuts spare more money available for refund to shareholders. Its 2011 projection for EPS represents a 19.33% surge from a year earlier.

Compared with its 2010 revenue result, the company's 2011 projection represents a 1.94% increase. Growth drivers include the company's reclaiming the right to set charge rates for local calls delivered to mobile subscribers from fixed-line subscribers, estimated additional subscribers to its movie-on-demand (MOD) service, estimated increase in subscribers to its mobile Internet access, anticipated gain in subscribers to its broadband Internet access, and anticipated more subscribers to its cloud computing service.

Throughout this year, Chunghwa Telecom will move to boost its value-added services and subscriber number, in a bid to increase the number of its mobile-phone subscribers to over 10 million for a revenue of NT$14 billion (US$466 million), adding a net 450,000 to its current 1.81 million subscribers to optical-fiber connection, and increasing the number of its MOD subscribers to one million.

Also, the board approved a motion to set the company's capital expenditure for this year at NT$31.1 billion (US$1.03 billion), compared with last year's NT$27-28 billion (US$900-933.3 million).

Chunghwa Telecom Chairman S.J. Lu said that the company is confident of its business prospects for this year despite the increasingly volatile environment for the telecom industry around the world.