KT Corporation (NYSE:KT) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 7, 2023 1:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Seung-Hoon Chi - Investor Relations
Young-Jin Kim - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Hoi Jae Kim - Daishin Securities
Jisoo Jeong - Meritz Securities
Joonsop Kim - KB Securities
Seyon Park - Morgan Stanley
Young-Jin Kim
[Call starts abruptly]
Our salary negotiations were reflected in Q4 last year, while we were able to smooth our content sourcing cost this year. In this regard, operating income has increased Y-o-Y in both consolidated and stand-alone basis to continue solid growth. Excluding wage negotiations and content servicing costs moving, operating income recorded KRW512.2 billion on a consolidated basis and KRW383.7 billion on a stand-alone basis in Q3 which is a 13.1% and 18.6% Y-o-Y growth, respectively.
In addition, on October 17, KT announced the new midterm shareholder return policy which is for the fiscal year 2023 to 2025 period. We are planning to use 50% of the stand-alone adjusted net income as resources for shareholder return. Dividend per share should be maintained at a minimum of 2022 levels. We also plan to purchase and cancel treasury shares within the financial resources available for shareholder return. Quarterly evidence should be introduced after receiving approval at the ordinary General Shareholders' Meeting in 2024.
KT will implement the Digital Service-First strategy by leveraging the company's CT and IT strengths. ICT capabilities are essential to offer differentiated and innovative digital services sought out by customers. As such, we will make utmost effort to integrate and strengthen the outstanding telco and IT strength of KT. We plan to boost corporate value by focusing on fundamentals based on the company's ICT capabilities to pursue quality growth.
Next, I will go over the business performance of 2023, Q3. Operating revenue reached KRW6,697.4 billion which is a 3.4% Y-o-Y increase. Operating income recorded KRW321.9 billion which is a 28.9% Y-o-Y decrease caused by a reflection of collective dollar renegotiations and smoothing out of content sourcing costs. Net income declined by 11.6% Y-o-Y to KRW288.3 billion and EBITDA decreased by 7.3% Y-o-Y to KRW1,259.9 billion. I will now go over the operating expense on the next page.
Operating expense increased by 5.8% Y-o-Y to reach KRW6,375.5 billion. The next slide is about the company's financial position. The debt-to-equity ratio as of September 2023 stood at 134.9%, while net-debt-to equity decreased by 6.1 percentage points Q-o-Q to 38.5%. Next, I will go over CapEx. KT Group's cumulative Q3 CapEx amounted KRW2,253.2 billion. On a stand-alone basis, cumulative CapEx as of Q3 stood at KRW1,600.4 billion. The group's CapEx, including the core business areas of finance, media content and real estate recorded KRW652.8 billion. CapEx implementation is in line with the annual investment plan.