SEOUL– KT Corp., a major South Korean telecom operator, said Wednesday its fourth-quarter net profit grew by more than tenfold from a year earlier on solid growth in 5G users and new businesses, including artificial intelligence.
Net income reached 424.4 billion won (US$355 million) in the October-December period on a consolidated basis, up from a profit of 37.2 billion won the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating income rose 128.4 percent on-year to 369.4 billion won, while sales stood at 6.62 trillion won, up 6.7 percent over the cited period.
For the whole of 2021, KT’s net income more than doubled on-year to 1.46 trillion won from a net profit of 703.4 billion won the previous year.
Annual operating income hiked 41.2 percent to 1.67 trillion won. Annual sales rose 4.1 percent to 24.9 trillion won over the cited period.
KT said the growth in 5G users led its annual wireless service sales, which rose 2.4 percent to 6.1 trillion won.
The company had 6.37 million users on its latest generation network as of the end of last year, up more than 200,000 from three months earlier, according to government data.
KT’s business-to-business service in telecommunications remained strong, with related sales standing at 500.8 billion won in the last three months of 2021, up 8 percent on-year on data traffic growth.
Sales from the company’s artificial intelligence and digital business, which includes internet data centers and cloud services, edged up 0.3 percent to 518.6 billion won over the same period.
In particular, the company’s AI business sector, including smart mobility, robots and block chain, jumped 20.6 percent on-year to 94.2 billion won.
The company aims to expand the portion of revenue from its B2B digital transformation (DX) business from the current 40 percent to 50 percent by 2025, shifting away from the traditional telecommunication business to focus on fostering new technology businesses.
“In tandem with the rapid trend towards digital transformation, we are seeing a higher demand for DX services that require AI, big data, cloud and other solutions converging with telecom services,” KT Chief Financial Officer Kim Young-jin said in a conference call.
The company said it is eyeing to expand DX businesses this year with a competitive edge in its cloud services, especially in financial and public sectors.
“KT is the only cloud provider in the country that can integrate network, IDC and cloud services altogether, and we plan to focus on cloud services as all public institutions and agencies in Korea are set to migrate to cloud by 2025,” Kim said.
KT’s major subsidiaries also logged robust growth last year, with credit card unit BC Card Co.’s annual sales adding 5.7 percent on-year to 3.57 trillion won, and real estate subsidiary KT estate Ltd.’s sales leaping 58.3 percent to 576.7 billion won over the same period.
Shares in KT rose 1.1 percent to 32,300 won, outperforming the broader KOSPI’s 0.81 percent gain. The company reported its fourth-quarter earnings before the market closed.
Source: Yonhap News Agency