CK Hutchison reported revenues at the European mobile operator 3 Group down 2 percent in 2020 to HKD 85.8 billion, as the coronavirus impacted customer numbers and usage. EBITDA fell 6 percent to HKD 31.4 billion, and EBIT was down 19 percent to HKD 16.3 billion.
The numbers exclude a one-time gain of HKD 16.6 billion booked by Hutchison on the sale of the mobile operator's tower assets to Cellnex. Profits were otherwise impacted by one-time income in 2019 and higher costs in the UK for rising annual licence fees and IT transformation.
The company said the total margin was flat in 2020, as a greater share of higher-margin customers helped offset the lower roaming revenue during the pandemic and regulatory effects. Excluding the one-time items in 2019 and currency effects, underlying EBITDA of the 3 Group was unchanged year-on-year and EBIT fell 9 percent due to higher depreciation and amortisation. Most of the operations saw meaningful improvement in H2 2020 compared to the first half, and especially the UK following a change in management, Hutchison said.
The active customer base fell by 5 percent over the year to 38.5 million, mainly due to fewer customers in Italy and the UK, partly offset by net additions in other operations. With a focus on managing churn, the operator kept the postpaid average monthly rate at 1.3 percent, the same as in 2019. Active postpaid customers were up 3 percent over the year to a total of just under 24 million.
Net ARPU rose by 1 percent to EUR 13.05. Total data usage increased 35 percent to approximately 5,485 PB, and the average usage per customer jumped to 147.7 GB from 102.3 GB in 2019.
Capital expenditure excluding licences rose slightly to HKD 20.3 billion from HKD 18.1 billion in 2019.
