Earnings Down at Taiwan's Top-3 Telecoms in October
2014/11/20 | By Ken LiuEarnings for October this year slipped from the previous month and year on year at Taiwan's top- three telecoms because of increased promotional spending on iPhone 6 smartphones they are contracted to sell, despite higher revenue in that month.
Chungwa Telecom Co., Ltd. made NT$0.38 per share in after-tax net income in Oct. to top the other two, with Taiwan Mobile Corp. outdoing the other two in earnings for the Jan.-Oct. period, netting NT$4.82 per share.
In October Chunghwa posted NT$2.94 billion (US$98 million) in net income on revenue of NT$19.03 billion (US$634.3 million), with the earnings down 14.7% but revenue up 0.9% year on year.
In Jan.-Oct. the company cleared NT$33.49 billion (US$1.11 billion) in after-tax net income on revenue of NT$186.01 billion (US$6.20 billion), down over 10% from YoY to NT$4.32 per share.
Chuanghwa executives say although the company's revenue from value-added mobile services increased 21.3% month-on-month in October and revenue from sales of mobile phones also grew in that month, its expenditure rose mostly due to aggressive promotions of iPhone 6.
Such promotions, however, have motivated more consumers to subscribe to its 4G mobile services to boost its mobile online customers to 5.01 million.
Taiwan Mobile reported operating income of NT$1.37 billion (US$45.6 million) and after-tax net income of NT$1.01 billion (US$33.66 million), or NT$0.37 per share, on revenue of NT$10.02 billion (US$334.00 billion) in October. In Jan.-Oct., it had after-tax net income of NT$12.97 billion (US$432.3 million) on consolidated revenue of NT$92.45 billion (US$3.08 billion).
Taiwan Mobile's spokesperson and chief finance officer (CFO), Rosie Yu, says its consolidated revenue continued growing in October, but its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) decreased YoY due chiefly to higher expenditure, including promotions of iPhone 6. Its EBITDA and after-tax net income for October each attained 34% and 35% of its Q4 forecast.
In October, Far EasTone Telecom Co., Ltd. had EBITDA of NT$1.76 billion (US$58.66 million) and after-tax net income of NT$680 million (US$22.66 million), or NT$0.21 per share, on revenue of NT$8.67 billion (US$289 million).
Oct. '14 Results of Taiwan's Top- 3 Telecoms
| Company
| Chunghwa
| Taiwan Mobile
| Far EasTone
|
| Revenue
| NT$19.03bn
| NT$10.02bn
| NT$8.67bn
|
| After-tax net income
| NT$2.940bn
| NT$1.01bn
| NT$680M
|
| EPS
| NT$0.38
| NT$0.37
| NT$0.21
|