Taiwan Mobile Remains Taiwan's Most Profitable Telecom Carrier

Taiwan Mobile Co., Ltd. remained the most profitable telecom carrier in Taiwan in the first half of this year. The company earned NT$3.06 per share in after-tax net income vs. Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd.'s NT$2.96 and Far EasTone Telecom Co., Ltd.'s NT$2.02.

These earnings results topped the three companies' goal for the first half. Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone saw their June earnings slip from May level due to including expenditure on 4G equipment. All three started providing 4G service in May or June.

In the first half, Taiwan Mobile made NT$8.2 billion (US$274 million) in after-tax net income on consolidated revenue of 54.6 billion (US$1.8 billion), with income and revenue for June alone posting at NT$1.3 billion (US$44.6 million), or NT$0.5 per share, and NT$8.9 billion (US$296.6 million), respectively. The first-half earnings attained 107% of the company's goal of NT$2.85 per share.

Company chief finance officer and spokesperson Rosie Yu ascribes the strong June revenue mostly to the surge in income from the company's online shopping site momo, as well as higher income from telecom and cable TV services.

Chunghwa made NT$20.8 billion (US$694.6 million) in after-tax net income on consolidated revenue of NT$110.8 billion (US$3.6 billion) in the Jan.-June period of this year. The revenue represented a 1.4% decrease from the same half of last year and attained 48.6% of the company's goal. Income gained by 5% over the same period of last year to achieve 58.1% of the company's goal.

In June alone, Chunghwa had after-tax net income of NT$3.6 billion (US$120.6 million), or NT$0.47 per share, on consolidated revenue of NT$18.7 billion (US$625.3 million). The revenue was flat from the same month of last year while earnings inched up 0.6% year on year (YoY).

Chunghwa executives point out that the company's revenue from value-added mobile service rose 20.1% in June this year from the same month of last year. Its revenue from broadband internet service and revenue from portal site HiNet for this June grew slightly YoY.

Company chairman, Rick Tsai, projected the company's after-tax net income for this year to surpass the goal of NT$4.62 per share.

Until this June, Chunghwa had an accumulative 3.03 million subscribers of optic-fiber based broadband services, 1.2 million 60Mbps-plus speed broadband subscribers, and 4.6 million mobile internet subscribers.

In the first half, Far EasTone earned NT$6.5 billion (US$219.3 million) on consolidated revenue of NT$44.8 billion (US$1.4 billion), rising 11.2% YoY and constituting 112% of the company's goal. In June alone, the company had after-tax net income of NT$1.1 billion (US$38.1 million), or NT$0.35 per share, on consolidated revenue of NT$7.3 billion (US$245.9 million).

Far EasTone executives said that the the company has increased its subscriber base for 50 consecutive months to an accumulative 7.3 million. They added that the company's 4G network will cover 19 counties and cities across the island including top nine metropolitans and the 60 hottest tourist attractions by the end of this July. (KL)

2014 1H Earnings of Taiwan's Top Three Telecom Carriers

Stock Code	Company	EPS for June	1H EPS	Projected EPS
2412	Chunghwa	NT$0.47	NT$2.69	NT$4.62 for whole year
3045	Taiwan Mobile	NT$0.50	NT$3.06	NT$2.85 for the 1st H
4904	Far EasTone	NT$0.35	NT$2.02	NT$3.35 for whole year

Sources: The companies