China Unicom reported a strong improvement in results for 2017 and said it would resume dividend payments. The company said the first months of 2018 suggested it was on track for further strong growth in 2018.
The Chinese operator's net profit roughly tripled last year, to CNY 1.828 billion, and adjusted EBITDA rose 6.1 percent to CNY 84.325 billion. Capex came in below budget, at CNY 42.1 billion versus CNY 72.1 billion a year earlier, helping free cash flow leap to CNY 42.9 billion. Unicom will pay a final dividend of CNY 0.052 per share, equal to a pay-out of around 40 percent of net profit.
While total operating revenues rose only 0.2 percent to CNY 274.820 billion in 2017, the company said it outperformed the market with mobile service revenue growth of 7.9 percent to CNY 156.441 billion. Fixed revenues declined 0.9 percent to CNY 90.866 billion.
Mobile growth was driven by a 27 percent increase in data revenues to CNY 92.283 billion. China Unicom said this was due to falling prices and more LTE customers, which grew by over 70 million last year. With only 62 percent of total mobile customers on 4G, it sees room for further growth in the year ahead. LTE customers were averaging data usage of 4.4 GB per month, compared to 2.4 GB for all customers.
Unicom said it expects capex of CNY 50 billion or less this year. The number of LTE base stations added will be similar to last year, with a focus on capacity expansion and improving customer experience. It will also work on rolling out 10G PON in Northern China to deliver gigabit broadband services, in addition to expanding 200 Mbps availability in certain areas and adding more TV and content services. In addition, Unicom expects to achieve nationwide coverage of its NB-IoT network in 2018.
The results for the first two months of 2018 show continued growth, Unicom said, with mobile service revenues up 11.6 percent year-on-year and overall service revenue growing 8.2 percent. The number of mobile customers increased by 5.677 million in the two months, triple the year-earlier net additions.
