China Unicom accelerated profit growth in 2013 with a 46.7 percent rise in net profit to CNY 10.41 billion. Revenues rose 18.5 percent to CNY 295.04 billion, and EBITDA was up 15.6 percent to CNY 83.96 billion, giving a margin of 35.2 percent. The growth came mainly from the mobile business, where the operator grew service revenues 19.9 percent to CNY 151.13 billion. Fixed-line service revenue was up 3.9 percent to CNY 86.49 billion.
The company reduced capex to CNY 73.46 billion from CNY 99.79 billion in 2012, helping free cash flow move to a positive CNY 5.02 billion, from a negative CNY 29.17 billion in 2012. Capital spending included a 23 percent increase in 3G base stations to 407,000, all of which support HSPA at 21 Mbps. The number of broadband ports rose by almost 12 percent last year to 119 million, of which 71 percent are FTTH/B. China Unicom still raised its dividend by a third, to CNY 0.16 per share.
The mobile subscriber base grew by over 41.6 million in 2013, to just under 281 million at year-end. ARPU improved by 0.6 percent to CNY 48.2, helped by more customers on 3G. 3G revenues were up 50.2 percent in the year to CNY 89.8 billion or over half total service revenues, while the number of 3G subscribers rose 60.4 percent to 123 million. At the fixed division, broadband customers were up 10.4 percent last year to 64.6 million.
