UPDATE: China Unicom January-September Net Profit CNY9.34 Billion
October 30 2009 - 7:41AM
Dow Jones News
China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (CHU) said Friday its
January-September net profit totaled CNY9.34 billion.
Revenue for the nine-month period was CNY114.93 billion. The
company said it didn't provide year-earlier figures because its
newly acquired businesses haven't prepared financial information
for the January-September period of 2008.
China Unicom merged with fixed-line operator China Netcom Group
Corp. (Hong Kong) Ltd. last year under a government plan that
revamped the country's telecommunications industry by cutting the
number of operators to three from six.
Competition in China's telecommunications market has intensified
since the government awarded third-generation operating licenses to
China Unicom, China Mobile Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. All three
companies have been striving to roll out new 3G services with lower
tariffs and higher handset subsidies.
Analysts said China Unicom's earnings will decline as it incurs
the startup costs of its 3G services, which it launched on Oct. 1,
and as its fixed-line business comes under growing pressure from
subscribers dropping their fixed lines in favor of mobile
phones.
China Unicom started offering Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone
services in China Friday.
The company's net profit for the January-September period was
higher than the average CNY9.25 billion forecast of six analysts
polled earlier by Dow Jones Newswires.
Its average revenue per user - an important industry gauge to
measure telecom operators' long-term growth - fell slightly to
CNY41.6 in the January-September period from CNY41.7 in the first
half of 2009.
-By Lorraine Luk, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002;
lorraine.luk@dowjones.com