KT 3Q operating profit of KRW 452.9 billion… 18.4%↑

KT has grown in all business divisions and has achieved earnings beyond the market forecast. In particular, cumulative operating profit in the third quarter of this year exceeded 1.5 trillion won.

KT announced on the 8th that it recorded sales of KRW 6.47 trillion and operating profit of KRW 452.9 billion in the third quarter of this year. This is an increase of 4.2% and 18.4% YoY, respectively. Earlier, securities firms expected sales of KRW 6.42 trillion and operating profit of KRW 441.5 billion.

Separate standard service sales increased 0.6% YoY to W3.944bn, and operating profit increased 24.9% YoY to W32.6bn. Including the KT Cloud launched this year, KT's separate service sales of KT increased 2.9% year-on-year to 4.4 trillion won.

■ 5G subscribers continued to increase… B2B platform business expansion plan

In the wired and wireless business, premium subscribers continued to increase. 5G subscribers recorded 7.96 million, with about 57%of all handset subscribers. Home wired telephone sales decreased 7.8% YoY, but the proportion of Gig Internet sales increased 2.6% year-on-year.

In the B2C platform business, sales of the IPTV business increased 5.8% last year. KT recently reorganized the existing IPTV brand 'Ollie TV' into 'Genie TV' and introduced 'Media Portal' service based on artificial intelligence (AI).

The B2B platform business has grown high as the demand for digital conversion (DX) has increased since Corona 19. Cumulative orders in the third quarter grew 21% year-on-year, and the AI Contact Center (ICC) sales grew 91.7% year-on-year due to the expansion of large-scale construction projects.

KT plans to expand its B2B platform business. In particular, in the smart mobility sector, new business opportunities are increasing due to the growth of the order of OEM and the automotive infotainment (IVI) market.

In the B2B project, the company's Internet business sales increased by 10.9% year-on-year as the company succeeded in attracting new CP companies with the increase in traffic volume of large CP companies at home and abroad. Corporate currency sales increased 6.8% year-on-year due to the growth of the average sales (ARPU) per subscriber of the corporate Internet phone and the expansion of the MVNO market.

■ KT, increases growth engine with optimization of group portfolio

In the third quarter of this year, KT Group's content subsidiary was outstanding. Content subsidiaries grew 24.7% year-on-year, achieving high growth in various business areas such as content, advertising, and commerce. In particular, Sky TV raised the awareness of the ENA channel brand thanks to the success of the drama 'Strange Lawyer Woo Young-woo', which recorded the highest viewer ratings of 17.5%.

KT Cloud continued to grow by leading the public cloud market, including the number of public cloud conversion projects and the number one market share this year. It is leading the market based on long experience, competence, thorough safety management and inspection system in the Internet data center (IDC) market.

The financial business also continued to grow. BC card sales increased by 10.8% year-on-year due to the increase in credit card purchases due to domestic consumption improvement. Since last quarter, K-Bank has gained profits due to the growth of all sales indicators, including the number of customers, reception, and goddesses. K-Bank's subscribers in the end of the third quarter were 80 million, up 180,000 from the end of the quarter, and the balance of receiving at the end of the third quarter was 13.5 trillion won and the credit balance was 9.8 trillion won.

KT Group acquired a mutual stake with Hyundai Motor Group in September, following a partnership with Shanahan Bank this year and cooperation with CJ ENM and contents business cooperation. KT plans to speed up the transition to Digit with leading operators in each field.

KT and CJ ENM decided to merge with Teaming last July to strengthen the competitiveness of online video services (OUT) in the domestic media and content industry. KT Submarine, a submarine cable construction company, attracted LS cable as a strategic shareholder.

Kim Youngkin, Chief Financial Officer of KT, said, Even in an uncertain environment such as inflation, KT has achieved the growth of the DIG ICO and B2B business. I will do it.