The mainland's second-largest mobile carrier China Unicom
recorded a 24.3 percent drop in net profit to 3.73 billion yuan for
2006 because of a non-cash loss.
The result had been forecast by experts, with the slide in
profit attributed to unrealized losses in convertible bonds the
company issued last year.
Excluding that loss, China Unicom would have posted a net profit
of 6.13 billion yuan for 2006, a 24.3 percent increase over the
previous year. China Unicom's revenue surged 8.3 percent to 94.3
billion yuan.
The company said the capital expenditure for 2007 would increase
20.65 percent to 26 billion yuan. The proceeds from the GSM
cellular business are estimated at 13.6 billion yuan and those from
local gateway and infrastructure network at 3.9 billion yuan.
The company's CDMA business, for the first time, was in the
black, notching up 1.06 billion yuan in profit before taxes,
compared with a 2 billion yuan loss in 2005.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) of CDMA dropped 12.25
percent to 65.9 yuan and the average usage per user per month
decreased to 274.7 minutes from 276.9 in the previous year.
The total number of CDMA subscribers reached 142.4 million in
2006, adding 14.6 million new callers that year.
Value-added cellular businesses achieved a rapid growth. SMS
volume reached 75.7 billion, while the number of subscribers for
the CDMA 1X wireless data service grew to 20.04 million.
Unicom shares in Hong Kong yesterday closed at HK$11.32,
increasing by HK$0.52, or 4.81 percent.
(China Daily March 30, 2007)