China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone operator by
users, yesterday posted a 23 percent jump in net profit for 2006,
benefiting from a robust subscriber growth and value-added business
as well as improved operations in the mainland market.
China Mobile's net profit for 2006 soared to 66 billion yuan
from 53.5 billion yuan in 2005, beating analysts' expectation of 65
billion yuan. Revenue stood at 295.4 billion yuan, up 21.5 percent
from 243 billion in 2005.
The Hong Kong-headquartered China Mobile registered over 300
million subscribers in 2006, 22 percent higher than the year
before.
"The group's subscriber base continued to grow rapidly and voice
usage volume achieved a notable increase," said Wang Jianzhou,
chairman of China Mobile.
Revenue attributable to its value-added businesses grew 38.1
percent year-on-year to 69.3 billion yuan. It accounted for 23.5
percent of the group's total operating revenue in the year, 2.9
percentage points higher than in 2005, Wang said.
China Mobile's value-added services such as SMS (short messaging
service) recorded robust growth last year, with messages reaching
nearly 1 billion a day, he said.
Wang said the group actively explored market opportunities and
developed new customers, with particular focus on the development
of the rural mobile telecommunications market in China.
Over half of China Mobile's new subscribers last year were from
rural areas, a new market expected to become a growth driver for
the company.
The country's top cellphone company has been aggressively
seeking network expansions in rural areas as big-city markets
become saturated. However, the move arouses analysts' concern that
China Mobile's exploration of rural markets will add pressures on
the profit margin because the less affluent users will be more
cautious with their phone bills than their urban counterparts.
But Lai Wai Shing, a Hong Kong-based independent stock analyst,
said he is optimistic about China Mobile's outlook because the
enormous amount of users will translate into healthy revenue.
Fulbright Securities General Manager Francis Lun said the result
fell slightly short of market expectations, but he thought China
Mobile would still be ahead of the other mainland telecommunication
operators because of its wide market coverage.
The total usage volume topped 1.25 trillion minutes at the end
of 2006, the company said in a statement. The monthly usage per
subscriber was 381 minutes and average revenue per user per month
was 90 yuan.
China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice-Chairman Fan Fuchun
had earlier told reporters on the sidelines of the annual session
of the National Committee of the CPPCC that China Mobile could
float shares on the Shanghai bourse this year.
With expectations of a good result, China Mobile shares surged
for five days in a row. It settled at HK$73.5 yesterday.
Its shares rose 22 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with
Unicom's 48 percent gain and a 14 percent rally by the benchmark
Hang Seng Index.
(China Daily March 22, 2007)