Profits at SK Telecom down 19 percent

SK Telecom Co., the country’s biggest mobile-phone operator, posted a larger drop in first-quarter profit than analysts estimated after losing customers to KT Freetel Co. and LG Telecom Ltd. Net income fell 19 percent from a year ago to 368 billion won ($368 million), SK Telecom said in a regulatory filing yesterday. Sales rose 0.5 percent to 2.41 trillion won. The company’s shares closed at an eight-month low. Mobile phone operators including SK Telecom, Vodafone Group Plc and NTT DoCoMo Inc. are responding to slowing growth in subscribers by betting on services that offer video calls, downloadable mobile-phone games and faster Internet access. Facing declining market share at home, chief executive Kim Shin Bae, 50, is looking to expand in countries such as Vietnam.