Hong Kong communications firm City Telecom saw its profit fall in the six months ended 29 February on multimedia business start-up costs. Revenues went up 11 percent to HKD 918.3 million from HKD 826 million, mainly due to strong fixed telecommunications business, which generated HKD 828 million, up 14 percent year-on-year. However, turnover for international communications services was HKD 90.3 million, down 6 percent year-on-year. Fixed-line subscriptions in total rose by 60,000 to 1.31 million. The number of broadband customers grew by 27,000 to 617,000, the local telephony base went up by 19,000 to 495,000, and the number of IPTV subscribers went up by 14,000 in the period to 195,000 subscribers. EBITDA stood at HKD 281.2 million, down 7 percent due to multimedia business start-up losses. Excluding multimedia business start-up losses of HKD 20.8 million, telecoms EBITDA was HKD 302.0 million which is essentially flat versus same period last year. Profit for the period slipped 20 percent to HKD 134.7 million from HKD 167.6 million in the year-ago period. City Telecom recently announced it would dispose of the telecommunications business to focus on the multimedia business.
