KT’s net profit rises 12.5% in Q4 after sale of Russian stake

Korea’s telecom titan KT said yesterday its fourth-quarter net profit rose 12.5 percent from a year earlier due to a one-off factor.

Net income came to 210.6 billion won ($188.9 million) in the October-December period of last year, compared with 187.1 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales jumped 24.7 percent on-year to 6.4 trillion won over the same period, while its operating profit dropped 16.7 percent to 287.6 billion won in the final quarter of last year.

The strong net bottom-line is attributable to the sale of its stake in the Russian New Telecom Company for $34 million, KT said.

In 2011, KT posted a 7.8 percent increase in its net profit, which topped 1.44 trillion won, with sales also rising 8.1 percent on-year to 22 trillion won. Its 2011 operating profit, however, fell 4.5 percent to 1.96 trillion won.

The country’s top fixed-line operator and the second-largest mobile carrier said it will invest 3.5 trillion won in the fast-growing fourth-generation long-term evolution telephone network in 2012 to reach 20 trillion won in sales.