[ET Net News Agency, 27 October 2017] China Unicom (00762) said its profit attributable
to the equity shareholders for the first three quarters of 2017 surged 155.3% year-on-year
to Rmb4,054 million.
Service revenue amounted to Rmb187,880 million, up by 4.1% year-on-year, which showed
continuous improvement from the 3.2% increase year-on-year in the first half of this year.
Mobile service revenue amounted to Rmb117,038 million, up by 6.7% year-on-year, which
showed continuous improvement from the 5.2% increase year-on-year in the first half of
this year.
EBITDA amounted to Rmb65,383 million, up by 5.9% year-on-year, which showed continuous
improvement from the 5.5% increase year-on-year in the first half of this year.
In the first three quarters of 2017, the Group's mobile billing subscribers registered a
net addition of 13.04 million, reaching a total of 277 million. Mobile billing subscriber
ARPU was Rmb48.4, up meaningfully as compared to the 2016 full-year average of Rmb46.4.
Within that, 4G subscribers registered a net addition of 55.73 million, reaching a total
of 160 million. 4G subscriber ARPU was Rmb65.6. For the single month of September, the net
additions of mobile billing subscribers and 4G subscribers both reached record high of
this year, standing at 3.82 million and 7.56 million respectively.
Given that the Group ceased to charge mobile domestic long-distance and roaming fees
from 1 September 2017, and market competition is expected to intensify cyclically, the
Group expects that its financial performance will face increasing pressure in the fourth
quarter of this year. (HL)