China Unicom (Hong Kong) net profit surges 51 per cent on strong 3G sales

China Unicom (Hong Kong), the mainland's second-largest wireless network operator, yesterday posted a 51 per cent increase in third-quarter net profit, driven by robust 3G subscription.

For the first nine months, net earnings soared 53.6 per cent from a year earlier to 8.37 billion yuan (HK$10.6 billion), the mobile carrier said in a bourse filing.

For the July-September period, net profit totalled 3.06 billion yuan, according to a calculation by the South China Morning Post. That is well above a 2.84 billion yuan mean estimate of four analysts polled by Reuters.

"The 50 per cent growth momentum could be maintained for the full year and into next year," said Ma Jun, an analyst at Hua Chuang Securities. "The number of 3G subscribers has reached 110 million and the growth is expected to continue."

In the first three quarters, total revenue rose 18.9 per cent year on year to 220.17 billion yuan, Unicom said.

Service revenue from mobile business was 111.94 billion yuan, including 64.65 billion yuan from the 3G business.