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| SK Telecom headquarters in Seoul / Korea Times file |
SK Telecom, Korea's largest wireless carrier, said Wednesday its first-quarter net profit jumped 37.3 percent from a year earlier thanks to increased dividend income.
The company logged a net profit of 302.5 billion won ($228.6 million) on a consolidated basis in the January-March period, down from 220.3 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating profit rose 14.4 percent on-year to 494.8 billion won for the quarter, and sales increased 2.2 percent to 4.37 trillion won.
The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 281.3 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
The company said the rise in net profit came from increased dividends.
The company saw its 5G service subscribers reach 14.15 million, accounting for more than 60 percent of its total mobile handset subscriptions.
SK Telecom said sales of its business, which provides data center and cloud-related services, grew 5.8 percent to 386.2 billion won for the first quarter, while its media business posted 393.2 billion won in sales, also up 10.2 percent from a year earlier.
Shares in SK Telecom traded at 49,450 won on the main KOSPI bourse as of 10:50 a.m., up 1.75 percent from the previous day. (Yonhap)
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