The mainland's dominant mobile-phone operator, China Telecom (Hong Kong), is expected to report single-digit growth when it announces interim results today after a big decline in interest income.
Most analysts believe attributable profit will come in between 3.5 billion yuan (about HK$3.2 billion) and 3.8 billion yuan, compared with 3.4 billion yuan last year.
However, analysts said the expected slower earnings growth would be distorted by exceptionally large interest income of 1.08 billion yuan last year, earned from its $35 billion initial public offering in October 1997.
Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Stephen Leung Siu-hung said interest income would shrink to 285 million yuan after the company paid 24 billion yuan to acquire the Jiangsu province mobile network.
That purchase reduced cash on hand to 12 billion yuan from more than 36 billion yuan.
Excluding the exceptional interest income, Goldman Sachs securities analyst Candice Hwa said, the company would still see strong growth at the operational level.
She estimated the company's operating profit growth would reach 37 per cent on a full-year basis.
