By Yoon Sung-won
KT posted 417 billion won ($367.2 million) in operating profit in the first quarter, up 8.3 percent from a year ago, the company said Friday.
Since 2012, it is the first time for the telecom company to record over 400 billion won in operating profit in the first quarter.
KT chalked up 5.61 trillion won in sales and 224.3 billion won in net profit for the quarter, up 1.8 percent and 4.3 percent from a year before, respectively. In the first quarter of 2016, KT racked up 385.1 billion won in operating profit, 5.51 trillion won in sales and 215.1 billion won in net profit.
KT attributed the increase in profitability to Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu's drive to cut expenses as well as growth in media businesses such as its internet protocol television (IPTV) service.
The company's media and content divisions generated 519.7 billion won in sales, up 16.6 percent from a year ago.
"The growth in media and content businesses is based on expansion in premium IPTV service subscribers and success in platform areas such as the pay-per-view model, advertisements and home shopping," KT said. "We expect that this will give momentum to better profitability in the IPTV business, which is one of our major goals for 2017."
In the wireless telecom service sector, KT attracted 342,000 new subscribers. But the sales from this segment settled at 1.79 trillion won in the quarter, down 3.1 percent year-on-year, as the gains from handset security services were excluded following a new accounting standard, the company said.
KT's fixed-line business sales were 1.25 trillion won, down 1.9 percent from a year ago, following a decrease in usage of fixed-line telephone services.
Chairman vows for profitability
After the earnings release, the KT chairman met with analysts and institutional investors in Seoul and pledged to take leadership in the era of fifth-generation (5G) networks and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
He also said the company will focus on five new growth engines ― media, smart energy, financial transactions, safety and public and corporate value services.
"KT is no longer just building networks and collecting telecom fees. We are changing into a provider of unprecedented services based on new technologies," Hwang said. "We will continue to foster 5G intelligent networks and platform businesses to meet market expectations for profitability."