Earnings Call Excerpt
China Mobile Limited (CHL)
FY08 Interim Results Call
August 27, 2008, 01:30 AM ET
Executives
Wang Jianzhou - Executive Director, Chairman and CEO
Xue Taohai - Executive Director, VP and CFO
Analysts
Presentation
Unidentified Company Representative
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the 2008 interim results announcement briefing of China Mobile Limited. In today's briefing, our management will first report the results, and then Chairman Wang will give you an update on TD before the Q&A session.
Please allow me to introduce our management members here today. Mr. Wang Jianzhou, Chairman and Chief Executive Director... Officer; Mr. Li Yue, Executive Director and Vice President; Mr. Lu Xiangdong, Executive Director and Vice President; Mr. Xue Taohai, Executive Director, Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer; Madam Xin Fanfei, Executive Director and Vice President.
Now, may I invite Chairman Wang to introduce the interim results? Mr. Wang, please.
Wang Jianzhou - Executive Director, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Dong Jie [ph]. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our 2008 interim results briefing. In today's presentation, I will present the overall performance and Mr. Xue will walk you through the financial results after which I will come back again to talk about the issue of TD-SCDMA.
Overall performance. In the first half of the year, despite the natural disasters including snowstorms, earthquake, and flood, we achieved remarkable results. Revenue grew 17.9%, net profit up 44.7%. Rapid subscriber growth sustained with an average monthly net adds exceeded 7.5 million. Value-added business developments were strong. Proportion in total revenue rose to 27%. Rural markets exhibited strong growth momentum, contributing nearly half of our subscriber growth.
Ordinary interim dividend for 2008 was 1.339 Hong Kong dollar per share, increased 60% over the same period of the last year. Our planned full-year dividend payout ratio is 43%.
As shown in the table, compared with the same period of last year, our total subscribers reached 415 million, increased by 24.7%. Operating revenue grew 17.9% to 196.5 billion yuan. EBITDA, up 16.2% to 104.4 billion yuan.
EBITDA margin continued standing at a high level of 53.1%. Net profit grew 44.7% to 54.8 billion yuan. Net profit margin enhanced by 5.1 percentage points to 27.9%. Basic EPS increased by 44.2% to RMB2.74 yuan.
Rapid growth of subscriber continued with net adds reached 45 million and a net add market share of 85%, taking our total subscribers to 415 million. We believe there remains vast potential for the future. Development of China's mobile market providing us room to further expand in a new competitive landscape.
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