SK Telecom's first quarter net drops 62% to 220 billion won

SK Telecom reported 220.3 billion won ($172.5 million) in net income in the first quarter, down 61.5 percent on year.

The drop was largely due to the loss of an equity contribution from SK hynix, which was spun off last year.

Operating profit rose 15.5 percent to 432.4 billion won in the first three months, higher than the consensus estimate of 398.9 billion won. Sales increased 3.9 percent to 4.27 trillion won, on par with market expectations.

SK Square was established in November and took with it stakes in non-telecom companies related to SK Telecom. SK hynix was one of the assets transferred.

SK Telecom now focuses on the telecom business while advancing new businesses, including those related to metaverse technologies.

In the first quarter, 5G service subscriber numbers grew to 10.9 million, up from 6.7 million in the year earlier period. The company expects that number to increase 58 percent by the end of the year.

The carrier said during a conference call that it will build new data centers in Busan and Seoul. It currently has five data centers located in Seoul and Gyeonggi.

Monthly active users of its ifland metaverse reached 1.35 million as of the end of March.

Sales from media-related businesses grew 10.3 percent, and enterprise data center and cloud product revenue climbed by 17.4 percent, the company said.

BY PARK EUN-JEE, YONHAP [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]