New | Hutchison Telecom gets boost from iPhone6 fever
Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings reported revenue in the second half of last year soared 62 per cent from the first following strong demand for Apple's iPhone6 smartphones after their launch in September.
"Comparing the second half against its first half, hardware revenue increased substantially by 182 per cent as a result of the launch of popular handsets," the company said on Monday.
For the full year, net profit dropped 9 per cent to HK$833 million while revenue rose 28 per cent to HK$16.3 billion.
The company raised the final dividend to 8.7 HK cents a share from eight HK cents a year earlier.
Hutchison Telecom, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, operates mobile services in Hong Kong and Macau under the Three brand, while fixed-line operations fall under Hutchison Global Communications.
Despite the robust growth driven by the iPhone, mobile service revenue fell 2 per cent as the recovery in the second half "was not substantial enough to offset the sluggish performance in the first", the company said.
The company had 3.2 million mobile customers at the end of last year, compared with 3.8 million in 2013.
The company said the decrease in postpaid and prepaid customer numbers was mainly because of the loss of lower-average revenue per user customers as it targeted higher-arpu data-centric customers.
Hutchison Telecom said it would roll out 4G LTE advanced services and the construction of the time division duplexing network this year.
It said with infrastructure improvement, it anticipated "a considerable growth in 4G LTE customer number and improvement in overall arpu".
Hutchison Telecom's shares fell 1.42 per cent yesterday to HK$3.46 in a market that closed 0.18 per cent firmer.
