[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s three largest network operators are expected to post relatively strong earnings for the April-June period thanks to their reduced marketing costs, according to market research firm FnGuide on July 21.

The combined revenues of the three companies -- KT, SK Telecom and LG Uplus -- are expected to come in at 12.6 trillion won (US$11 billion) on average.




The sales figure increased 2.3 percent from the same period of 2016 and 1.4 percent from the previous quarter.

KT, which runs both mobile and landline telecom networks nationwide, is expected to earn the highest revenue among the three at 5.6 trillion won while SKT, the nation’s largest mobile network operators by the number of subscribers, and LG Uplus will likely log 4.3 trillion won and 2.7 trillion won, respectively.

Their combined operating profit will likely stand at 973.9 billion won, the same as last year and up from the preceding quarter.

SKT will likely become the most profitable among the three peers by logging 426 billion won of operating profit, while that of KT and LG Uplus are expected to stand at 372 billion won and 176 billion won, respectively.

The market research firm attributed the relatively robust earnings to reduced marketing costs despite the release of the flagship phones of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics in the first half.


By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)