Chunghwa Telecom Expects 2017 Profit To Decline 7.8% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (CHT) announced, for 2017, the company expects income from operations to decrease by 7.1%, year over year. Income before income tax and net income attributable to stockholders of the parent are expected to be NT$45.69 billion and NT$36.89 billion, respectively. Basic earnings per share is expected to decrease by 7.8% to NT$4.75, as compared to the prior year. The company expects total revenue to increase 0.5%, to NT$231.16 billion as compared to the un-audited consolidated revenue of 2016.

Yu Cheng, CEO of Chunghwa Telecom, stated,"Looking ahead, we expect total revenues for the full year of 2017 to increase to NT$231.16 billion, mainly driven by growth in mobile value-added services, smart device sales and our enterprise ICT business. As the intense competition in the industry is expected to continue, we will further streamline our marketing activities, strengthen diversified digital convergence services, as well as develop new opportunities in innovative business lines, including ICT, IoT and MOD/OTT."

The company reported that its fourth-quarter net income attributable to stockholders of the parent decreased by 18.3% to NT$7.72 billion. Basic earnings per share was NT$1.00. Income from operations decreased by 12.7% to NT$9.90 billion.

Chunghwa Telecom's total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2016 decreased by 6.2% to NT$58.35 billion, which was comprised of 48.7% mobile, 13.0% internet, 30.4% domestic fixed, 5.9% international fixed, and 2.0% from other businesses. Mobile communications revenue decreased by 8.7% to NT$28.39 billion. The company said this was mainly due to the decrease in smart device sales and mobile voice revenue, but partially offset by the continued growth of mobile VAS revenue. The decline of mobile voice revenue was mainly owing to increased market competition and VoIP substitution.

Internet business revenue for the fourth quarter of 2016 increased by 9.4% year over year to NT$7.61 billion. The company said the increase was primarily attributable to higher application VAS revenue.