3 Group reported a drop in first-half results, hurt by the effects of the coronavirus crisis and the loss of customers in the UK and Italy. Revenues fell 7 percent to HKD 40.52 billion, and EBITDA was down 11 percent to HKD 14.45 billion. Excluding currency effects, revenues fell 3 percent and EBITDA was down 7 percent.
The mobile operator ended June with 38.7 million active customers, down 7 percent year-on-year.
Parent company CK Hutchison said the business was relatively less affected by the pandemic than its other businesses, with the total margin up 1 percent in local currency thanks to a bigger share of higher margin customers. This was offset by lower roaming revenues and regulatory effects, such as increased licence costs in the UK. It replaced the senior management in the UK in the past year and said it was starting to see improvement there.
The company said it completed the separation of its towers into a new infrastructure company, CK Hutchison Networks. The company manages 29,100 sites across the six European countries where 3 operates. The new management will work on optimising costs and growing revenues through an increase in the current tenancy rate of 1.2. Hutchison said it it "continues to actively explore options to maximise the value to the group of this important business".
