SK Telecom reports 25.5% rise in Q3 net profit

SK Telecom, Korea's top mobile carrier, said Wednesday its third-quarter net profit jumped 25.5 percent from a year earlier, driven by robust growth of its mobile and enterprise businesses.

Net profit amounted to 308.2 billion won ($236.3 million) on a consolidated basis in the July-September period, compared to 245.6 billion won from the same period last year, SK Telecom said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit rose 7 percent on year to 498 billion won, and sales rose 1.4 percent to 4.4 trillion won.

The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 291.2 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

The company attributed strong earnings to growth of its mobile communication and enterprise businesses.

Sales from SKT's mainstay telecom business gained 0.8 percent on year to 3.1 trillion won as the number of fifth-generation network service subscribers continued to increase.

The number of 5G subscriptions reached 15.1 million in the third quarter, compared to 12.5 million in the same quarter last year.

SKT's enterprise unit saw its sales climb 5.8 percent on year to 401 billion won in the third quarter, driven by strong demand for its data center and cloud business.

Sales from data centers jumped 32.5 percent on year to 53.4 billion won on the increased operation rate of a new data center, and sales from cloud also soared 38.7 percent to 36.2 billion won largely thanks to recurring sales from its managed service provider business.

SKT's subsidiary SK Broadband also saw its sales advance 2.4 percent to 1.04 trillion won thanks to strong demand for IPTV service.

The number of SK Broadband's IPTV subscribers stood at 9.5 million as of the end of September, up from 9.3 million a year ago.

SKT said it will continue to develop its AI business, noting its AI chip arm, Sapeon, will launch a next-generation AI inference chip X330 later this year, and its Global AI Platform in the U.S. will release a platform tailored to large language models for telecommunication companies next year.

Metaverse platform ifland has also racked up half of its 4.2 million monthly active users from overseas, the company added.

“With our AI pyramid strategy, we will work to become a global AI company and maximize shareholders' value,” Kim Jin-won, SKT's chief financial officer, said.

In September, SKT unveiled its plan to triple its investment in AI and raise 25 trillion won of sales by 2028 by creating a comprehensive AI business model.

Yonhap