Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd. (CHT) declared weak financial results for the third quarter of 2014. Quarterly total revenue came in at approximately $1,870 million, recording a drop of 1% year-over-year. The third-quarter 2014 net income came in at around $324 million, down 8.8% year over year. Net earnings per ADR were 41 cents as against 42 cents in the year-ago quarter.
Quarterly operating income stood at $372 million, down 11.3% year over year. Quarterly operating costs were $1,497million, up 1.9% year over year. Operating margin was 19.9% compared with 22.2% in the year-ago quarter.
The third-quarter 2014 EBITDA was $658 million, down 4.2% year over year. Quarterly EBITDA margin came in at 35.2% against 36.4% in the prior-year quarter. During the reported quarter, Chunghwa generated around $604 million of cash from operations, up 6.1% year over year. Capital expenditure was around $263 million, up 2.2% year over year.
Segment wise Revenue
The Mobile Communications segment accounted for approximately $882 million of the total third-quarter 2014 revenue, down 3.8% year over year. The Internet segment contributed around $229 million, up 2.2% year over year. The Domestic Fixed-line Communications segment recorded $602 million in revenues, up 0.6% year over year. The International Fixed-line Communications segment generated $128 million, down 3.2% year over year. Other Business registered the remaining $29 million, up 15.7% year over year.
In the third quarter of 2014, Handset sales revenues stood at $223 million, down 13.5% year over year. Mobile VAS (value added services) revenues were $298 million, up 22.1% year over year, wherein mobile Internet VAS (largest contributor) revenue was up 29% year over year.
Subscriber Statistics as of Sep 30, 2014
The total Broadband subscriber base was nearly 4.543 million, out of which the FTTx subscriber base was around 3.08 million, accounting for 67.8% of the total broadband subscriber base. 750,000 Broadband subscribers signed up for 100Mbps or higher speed connections, up by a whopping 300% year over year. HiNet subscriber base was 3.80 million, up 0.4% year over year.
Mobile subscriber base stood at 11.05 million, up 4.8% year over year. Mobile Internet subscriber base was 4.89 million, up a significant 36.9% year over year. Chunghwa currently commands 36% of the mobile Internet market share in Taiwan. In the reported quarter, the company added a net of 0.24 million mobile Internet subscribers. The International /Domestic Fixed-line subscriber base stood at 11.42 million.
Other Stocks to Consider
Currently, Chunghwa holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other well performing stocks in the telecom industry include BT Group Plc. (BT), SK Telecom Co. Ltd. (SKM) and China Mobile Ltd. (CHL). While both BT Group and SK Telecom sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), China Mobile has a Zacks Rank #2.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Get all Zacks Research Reports and be alerted to fast-breaking buy and sell opportunities every trading day.
Be the first to comment