HKBN interim profit falls 63% to $48.5m

The result represents a drop from $131.58m profit recorded in the six months ending in February 2020.

Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) posted a $48.56m profit for the six months ending in February, reflecting a drop of 63% from $131.58m in the same period last year.

The company’s revenue for the period rose more than 40% to $6.22b, largely due to its enterprise solutions segment that brought in $2.6b revenue.

“Despite the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, our business delivered growth in this difficult time with a stable number of enterprise customers at 105,000 by raising our enterprise average revenue per unit (ARPU),” HKBN said in its interim results announcement.

The company noted that its ARPU rose from $2,775 per month in the first half of 2020, to $3,028 monthly in the same period this year.

HKBN’s enterprise solutions related product revenue soared 96% to $1.24b. Other products also increased in revenue by more than 100% to $1.41b, whilst residential solutions slipped 2% $1.22b.

Meanwhile, network costs and costs of sales increased 76% year-on-year to $3.92b. HKBN’s cost of inventories also increased by more than 160% to $2.15b.

Moving forward, the company will continue investments in a series of telecom and technology solutions as well as initiatives such as Barter & Bundle, Transformation as a Services, digital platforms and e-commerce to further enter the enterprise and residential markets.

It will also transform its enterprise business to relationship management and expand its quad-play bundle plans, amongst other improvements.