China Mobile Q1 Profit Rises 37%

China Mobile Q1 Profit Rises 37%. China Mobile, reported first quarter results. Profits reached 24.1 billion yuan (US$3.4 billion), a 37% rise over the year-earlier. after it added customers at a record pace by cutting rates and offering news and instant messaging. China Mobile's net income jumped from 17.6 billion yuan the previous year to beat average analyst estimates of around 23.6 billion yuan. Sales rose 20% to 93.02 billion yuan.

In addition, Total number of subscribers rose by a record 22.8 million to reach 392.1 million, suggesting that China Mobile added more than 7 million new customers a month. On the downside, ARPU fell from 85 to 82 yuan due to the mobile operator's expansion into rural areas. According to China Mobile's CEO Wang Jianzhou, they managed to win subscribers from two fixed-line players, China Telecom and China Netcom, as more and more customers switched to mobile.

China's economy, which may overtake Germany's as the world's third biggest this year, has averaged 10 percent annual growth and expanded 68 times in size since free-market reforms started in 1978.

(source)