SmarTone grows revenue by 83% in H1

Hong Kong and Macau telecommunications firm SmarTone Telecommunications' revenue for first half ending 31 December 2010 grew 83 percent to HKD 5 billion from HKD 2.75 billion. Service revenues grew to HKD 2.80 billion and Handset and accessory sales grew to HKD 2.25 billion. EBITDA increased by 52 percent to HKD 1,406 million. The group achieved a 12 percent year-on-year growth in its Hong Kong customer base. Net profit grew to HKD 485.75 million or HKD 46.2 per share from HKD 324.48 million or HKD 30.8 per share. Hong Kong revenues grew to HKD 4.92 billion from HKD 2.65 billion. EBITDA grew to HKD 1.33 billion from HKD 895.77 million. Customer number increased by 12 percent to 1.62 million, of which 70 percent were higher value postpaid customers. Postpaid mobile churn rate maintained at a healthy level of 1.1 percent. Hong Kong blended ARPU rose by 15 percent to HKD 277. With improving operations, SmarTone Macau registered growth in both revenue and profit in the period under review. The group had 2,024 full-time employees as of 31 December 2011, with the majority of them based in Hong Kong. Macau revenues rose by 35 percent to HKD 179.29 million from HKD 132.46 million. EBITDA grew to HKD 71.39 million from HKD 31 million.