Profit attributable to equity shareholders up 3.4% year-on-year to HK$1,231 million

Total dividends per share increased by 3.3% year-on-year to HK25.3 cents

(13 March 2024, Hong Kong) — CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (“CITIC Telecom” or the “Group”; stock code: 1883), Asia-Pacific leading multinational internet-oriented telecommunications enterprise providing comprehensive services, has reported profit attributable to equity shareholders of the Company of HK$1,231 million for the year ended 31 December 2023, representing a year-on-year increase of 3.4%, or a 3.0% increase if the effect of investment property valuation is excluded.

The Group’s total revenue amounted to HK$9,987 million, representing a year-on-year slight drop of 1.2%. The decrease was mainly attributed to the drop in revenues from international telecommunications services and fixed line services, offset partly by the increase in revenues from mobile services and internet services.  The Group’s revenue from telecommunications services amounted to HK$8,569 million, representing a year-on-year decrease of 3.0%. Basic earnings per share was up 3.1% when compared with the previous year to HK33.3 cents.

The Board has recommended a final dividend of HK19.3 cents per share for 2023. Together with the 2023 interim dividend of HK6.0 cents per share, total dividends per share for 2023 amounted to HK25.3 cents, representing a growth of 3.3% over the previous year.

Mr. LUO Xicheng, Chairman of CITIC Telecom, said, “In 2023, the global economic landscape was severe and complex. CITIC Telecom actively addressed multiple challenges in the course of development and charged forward in grinding effort against all adversities with the support from CITIC Group Corporation, the major shareholder. It continued to uphold the strategy of ‘rooting in Chinese mainland market, taking Hong Kong and Macau as the base and connection, and expediting international expansion and coverage’ and persist in a customer-centric approach, generating new driving force from innovative developments and embracing the blue ocean of digital economy to drive qualitative corporate development with full force.”

The Group has maintained a healthy financial position and stable cash flows. As at 31 December 2023, the Group recorded cash and deposits of approximately HK$1,726 million, which is sufficient to meet its financial obligations and contractual capital commitments in the coming 12 months. The Group has also actively reduced its debt and continued to optimise its net gearing ratio. As at 31 December 2023, the Group’s net gearing ratio further declined to 17% (31 December 2022: 20%).

Business Highlights

Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau, S.A.R.L. (“CTM”) was fully committed to the constructions for “Digital Macau 3.0” by leveraging its status as a prime mover in the market. As of the end of 2023, CTM had more than 500,000 5G subscribers, representing a market share of approximately 75%, firmly securing its top position in the 5G market. During the year, CTM became the first provider to offer 5G private network services in the development of 5G industry applications, as it partnered with Macau University of Science and Technology in the launch of a 5G smart campus private network, which served the Macau Science Satellite-1 experimental project in contribution to the development of Macau’s aerospace industry. Meanwhile, in order to offer new experiences on 5G roaming services and drive the smart city 5G integration in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, CTM has launched the first “Macau Smart Tourism Big Data Service” amongst peers in Macau by employing 5G+ cloud network integration technologies and leveraging its advantage on big data and AI technologies, and completed the first trial on 5G SA+VoNR roaming service between Hong Kong and Macau in collaboration with a world-class mobile carrier via the Group’s international roaming hub (IPX) platform. As at the end of 2023, CTM launched bilateral 5G roaming services with 124 overseas network operators, covering 99 countries and regions; launched bilateral 4G roaming services with 390 overseas network operators, covering 221 countries and regions; and had bilateral VoLTE roaming services with 21 overseas network operators, covering 24 countries and regions.

Mobile sales & services revenue increased by 13.2% year-on-year to HK$2,385 million, including the revenues from sales of mobile handsets and equipment and mobile services. Mobile services revenue increased by 16.9% to HK$967 million when compared to the previous year as a result of the gradual increase in the number of people travelling abroad to pre-COVID level and increase in the number of mobile subscribers.

The acceleration of digital transformation and upgrading has continued to drive higher business internet requirements and the revenue growth of data centre services. During the year, CTM successfully achieved the goal of “introducing optical fibre and phasing out copper wire”, as the fibrelisation rate reached 100% during the year to usher in the era of all-fibre network for all CTM internet broadband users. Benefiting from the development of the digital economy and advancement of internet technologies, revenue from internet services was HK$1,427 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.2%. As at 31 December 2023, the Group’s internet market share in Macau was 97.1%. Furthermore, the Group expanded data centre business with the successful solicitation of a sizable internet platform company as customer with a large-scale project at its high-grade data centre in Hong Kong, underscoring customer recognition of its technical strength.

With local governments lifting lockdown measures and travel restrictions, “DataMall自由行” services had gained momentum. “DataMall自由行” increased HK$104 million year-on-year to HK$131 million. Voice services revenue increased by 42.2% year-on-year to HK$1,234 million. International telecommunications services revenue decreased by 14.5% year-on-year to HK$2,954 million, mainly due to changes in various external factors in the second half of 2023, some customers made corresponding adjustments to their businesses, resulting in relatively large decrease in revenue from messaging services.

Vigorous construction of integrated “Cloud, Network, Intelligence and Security” service platform to accelerate transformation towards digitalisation and intelligentisation. CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited (“CPC”), a subsidiary of the Group, has been committed to enhancing its cloud services and data security protection, and became the first management service provider in Hong Kong which obtained VMware Sovereign Cloud certification. It improved its service coverage in “Belt and Road” region, the Middle East and BRICS countries, and optimised its global network presence with the construction of a TrueCONNECT™ point-of-presence (PoP) in Qingyuan, Guangdong and the addition of new service gateways in Dubai in UAE, Mumbai in India and Sao Paulo in Brazil. To improve its portfolio of cyber security products, it launched TrustCSI™ 3.0 (雲網神盾), a cyber security solution. Capabilities in secure market development have been enhanced with the launch of the third security operations centre (SOC) in Shanghai, following establishments in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Meanwhile, the TrustCSI™ IAS asset streamlining service has also been launched. As at the end of 2023, CPC has nearly 170 PoPs deployed worldwide covering 160 countries and regions on five continents with 63 SD-WAN gateways, including 43 in Greater China region.

Optimising overseas market presence and exploring new opportunities in Southeast Asia. During the year, Acclivis Technologies and Solutions Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of the Group, focused on key projects securing multiple contracts from government agencies, such as data centre hosting and data disaster recovery services to the Government of Singapore, and digital telephony system migration service to the Government of Malaysia. Meanwhile, the Group is actively expanding into new businesses and new markets, an ISP license application has been submitted to the Government of the Philippines, while plans to expand in Vietnam are also in progress. The Group is also committed to enhancing digital transformation and integrate its AI technology capabilities to provide customers with digitalised solutions, with delivery of the ISOTeams drone project, and completion of an ICT facility construction service project in Malaysia.

Development Strategies

In 2024, the complexity, severity and uncertainty in the landscape for global economic development have escalated, and traditional businesses are facing increasing difficulties and continuous pressure. The Group will seize the opportunities, strive on innovation, and enhance the technology-driven approach as it steps up with business transformation to expand into new frontiers such as IoT, AI, information security and new 5G applications, enhancing the core competitiveness as it strives to become a world class international internet-oriented telecommunications enterprise.

The Group will continue to enhance platform value to fortify status as core regional hub for international telecommunications services, and enhance the value of the cross-border mobile services platform, global mobile data trading platform “DataMall自由行” and enterprise messaging services platform. The scope of business will be consistently expanded on the back of the Internet of Humans to cover IoT, whilst the operational management and development of the international telecommunications business will be enhanced and strong efforts will be made to improve platform capabilities and optimise platform services in a bid to consolidate the business scale.

The Group will be committed to the smart city construction in Macau by leveraging its advantage as a prime mover in 5G, unleash the new potential of Macau’s 5G network, and forge a 5G+ “Cloud-Network Convergence” digital foundation to deliver world-class technological achievements to the Macau society on a consistent basis, joining forces with various sectors to drive the development of a 5G ecosystem and its applications in active advancement of the digitalisation and intelligentisation of the Macau society.

The Group will also enhance the ability to supply digitalised solutions in contribution to the development of the digital economy, seize new opportunities arising from the expedited development of the digital economy, step up with its efforts to foster capabilities in “Cloud, Network, Intelligence and Security”, and continue to expand the global network, whilst steadily advancing the development of CITIC Telecom Tower Data Centre to upgrade its abilities in providing integrated corporate services, in order to swiftly establish its presence in the new blue ocean of digital economy.

Mr. LUO Xicheng, Chairman of CITIC Telecom, said, “Innovation is the primary driving force and innovation and transformation are our top priorities. The Group will continue to increase investment in scientific research, strengthen the building of succession teams as well as synergies with subsidiaries of CITIC Group and among various business segments of the Group and deepen business synergies as well as R&D synergies, and ongoingly develop new products, new businesses, new markets and new customers, to promote the long-term healthy and high-quality development of the Group and continuously create greater value for shareholders.”