[ET Net News Agency, 15 March 2018] China Unicom (00762) said its profit attributable
to equity shareholders for the year ended 31 December 2017 surged 192.5% year-on-year to
Rmb1,828 million.
Basic and diluted earnings per share were Rmb0.07.
Revenue amounted to Rmb274.83 billion, up 0.2% compared with last year, of which,
service revenue accounted for Rmb249.02 billion, up 4.6% year-on-year. EBITDA amounted to
Rmb81.43 billion, up by 2.4% year-on-year.
In 2017, China Unicom incurred a net loss on asset disposal related to optical fibre
network upgrade of Rmb2.9 billion which had no impact on cash flow. Excluding the net loss
on asset disposal related to optical fibre network upgrade, profit attributable to equity
shareholders soared 540.5% year-on-year to Rmb4 billion.
Mobile service revenue reached Rmb156.44 billion, representing a year-on-year growth of
7.9%, exceeded industry average by 2.2 percentage points. Mobile billing subscribers
achieved a net increase of 20.34 million to 284.16 million in total in 2017. The average
revenue per user (ARPU) of mobile billing subscribers amounted to Rmb48, up 3.5%
year-on-year.
In 2017, China Unicom's 4G subscriber base witnessed a net increase of 70.33 million to
a total of 174.88 million. The 4G subscriber market share was up 3.7 percentage points
year-on-year. The proportion of 4G subscribers to total mobile billing subscribers
increased by 21.9 percentage points year-on-year to 61.5%.
The proposed final dividend is Rmb5.2 cents (2016: nil) per share, payable on or about
12 June. (HL)