PCCW Ltd said its first-half to June net profit fell 20 pct year-on-year to 656 hkd due mainly to lower contribution from its property arm Pacific Century Premium Developments (PCPD).
Total revenue, including that from property arm PCPD, dropped slightly 11.37 bln hkd from 11.61 bln a year earlier, reflecting lower recognition of property development revenue.

PCPD contributed revenue of 618 mln hkd in the six months, down 71 pct from 2.1 bln hkd a year earlier.

Revenue from PCCW's core telecom businesses amounted to 10.75 bln hkd, up 13 pct, with the core EBITDA up 10 pct to 3.36 bln hkd.

Local telephony services revenue edged lower by 3 pct to 2.28 bln hkd.

TV & Content segment revenue surged 45 pct to 1.04 bln hkd, driven by higher service subscription revenue from a larger paying base and growing average revenue per user (ARPU), and higher TV advertising revenues.

PCCW operates the NOW broadband TV service in Hong Kong, and also has some other programming and content businesses.

Loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (LBITDA) of the TV segment narrowed 46 pct year-on-year to 40 mln hkd.

The company noted that NOW TV has become the largest local pay-TV operator with installed base up 13 pct year-on-year at 927,000 subscribers.

Mobile phone business achieved EBITDA of 108 mln hkd, against a loss of 56 mln a year earlier.

PCCW mobile's total subscribers reached 1.176 mln, up 23 pct, with 3G subscriber base growing 142 pct year-on-year to 288,000. 3G ARPU rose 3 pct to 222 hkd from end-2007.

Total broadband access lines in service reached 1.28 mln at end-June, up by 8 pct from a year ago.

Looking ahead, Chairman Richard Li said PCCW will seek to maintain its fixed-line customer base, while introducing more value-added features to home multimedia services.

"Increasing demand in the commercial sector for higher bandwidth and managed services looks set to further drive growth in broadband, local data and international telecommunications services," he said.

(1 usd = 7.8 hkd)

Source:XFN-ASIA