KT earnings beat estimates in Q2; shares hit 6-month high

KT Corp., South Korea’s leading telecommunications carrier, reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter on strong results for both its corporate and individual customer businesses, sending its share prices to a near six-month high.

KT said on Monday its operating profit rose 25.5% to 576.1 billion won ($441.8 million) in the April-June period on a consolidated basis, the largest surplus since the first quarter of 2022, with sales up 3.7% to 6.55 trillion won.

The profit and sales were higher than analysts’ consensus forecasts of 520.4 billion won and 6.53 trillion won, respectively, according to a local financial market tracker FnGuide Inc.

“KT beat market expectations through balanced growth in the B2C and B2B sectors while proving the growth potential of group businesses despite tough external factors such as the economic slowdown and inflation,” said KT Chief Financial Officer Kim Young-jin in a statement, referring to business-to-consumer and business-to-business, respectively.

Its shares jumped to 32,450 won, the highest since Feb. 21 and ended up 4.1% at 32,000 won on the country’s main stock market, far outperforming the 0.9% fall in the Kospi.

KT HOPES NEW CEO TO ACCELERATE GROWTH

KT last week nominated Kim Young-shub, former CEO of LG CNS Co., to head the telco after an unprecedented leadership vacuum. KT is scheduled to hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting to approve nominee Kim on Aug. 30.

The company expects Kim to accelerate its growth.

“Nominee Kim proposed a strategy to strengthen investments in ICT infrastructure while establishing and expanding a solid foundation for growth,” CFO Kim said during an earnings call, referring to information and communication technology.

The company also aims for innovative growth based on its core business and digital transformation (DX), the CFO added.

KT’s B2B unit, which handles the enterprise digital transformation, cloud, artificial intelligence and robots, won more orders in the first half.

The unit was predicted to secure contracts of more than 3 trillion won as its deals rose 19% to 1.9 trillion won in the January-June period from a year earlier, according to the company.

Its telco business, which includes landline and mobile communication, saw healthy growth in premium customers. The number of 5G phone subscribers with relatively more expensive plans rose 24.1% to 9.3 million in the second quarter.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
 

Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.