China Mobile reported revenues down 0.6 percent to CNY 389.4 billion, as government pressure to reduce prices and tough competition weighed on results. EBITDA still grew 3.6 percent to CNY 151.1 billion, good for a margin of 38.8 percent, up 1.6 percent points.
Net profit declined 14.6 percent to CNY 56.1 billion. China Mobile declared an interim dividend of HKD 1.527 per share, in line with its target for a 49 percent pay-out ratio. Capex reached CNY 85.2 billion in the six months, leaving free cash flow of CNY 41.0 billion.
Mobile customer growth reached 9.98 million in the first half, for a total of 935 million customers at the end of June. This included 734 million 4G users, up by 21.13 million from the start of the year. Average 4G data usage increased 132.5 percent year-on-year to 7.1 GB per phone per month. This was supported by the net addition of 300,000 more LTE base stations in H1, for a total of 2.71 million.
Fixed broadband subscribers grew by 18.20 million in H1 to 175 million, and the set-top box Mobaihe added another 14.3 million users in the period, reaching a penetration of 68.7 percent of household customers. China Mobile said it also added 142 million net new Internet of Things connections, driving the total number of connections to 693 million.
Total IoT revenue was up 43.8 percent year-on-year to CNY 5.2 billion, and Mobaihe revenues rose 59.7 percent to CNY 6.2 billion. Data and ICT services also contributed CNY 13.6 billion, up 47.3 percent from a year ago.
China Mobile introduced its new 5G+ brand in June after being granted a 5G spectrum licence. The company plans to leverage 4G base station sites and transmission facilities to build out the 5G network in a cost-effective manner. The plan is to set up more than 50,000 5G base stations in China this year and launch 5G commercial services in more than 50 cities.
