SK Telecom Co Ltd (NYSE:SKM) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript February 4, 2024 8:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Hee Jun Chung - IR
Kim Yang-Seob - CFO
Choi Hwan-seok - Head of the AI Strategic
Kim Young-joo - Head of Enterprise Business Strategy Office
Lee Joon-ho - Head of the Corporate Planning Office
Kim Yong-hun - Head of AI Assistant
Conference Call Participants
Seyon Park - Morgan Stanley
Joonsop Kim - KB Securities
Soojin Kim - Mirae Asset Daewoo
Hee Jun Chung
Good morning. I am Hee Jun Chung, IRO of SK Telecom. Thank you for joining SK Telecom's earnings conference call. Today, we will first deliver a presentation on major events, 2023 full year earnings highlights and business performances, which will be followed by a Q&A session. The call is attended by our executives from relevant business divisions, including Yang-Seob Kim, CFO of SK Telecom, and we're providing consecutive interpretation for the call.
As you may know, I'd like to remind you that all forward-looking statements are subject to change depending on various factors, such as market and macro situations. Let me now present our CFO.
Kim Yang-Seob
Good morning. This is Yang-Seob Kim, CFO of SK Telecom. It is my first time to greet you and as we head into the Lunar New Year holiday, I would like to wish you a very happy New Year.
In the third quarter of last year, SK Telecom announced the AI Pyramid Strategy to become a global AI company. At CES 2024 held in Las Vegas last month, we showcased AI technologies that promise to change our daily lives and actively engage in discussions with global leading AI players to expand global partnerships. Through these efforts, we will strive to produce concrete AI business results this year. Let me first report on the annual consolidated financial results for 2023. Thanks to improved earnings of SK Telecom and SK Broadband, consolidated revenue reported KRW 17,608.5 billion, up 1.8% year-over-year. Operating income posted KRW 1,753.2 billion, up 8.8% year-over-year and net income posted KRW 1,145.9 billion. On a non-consolidated basis, revenue posted KRW 12,589.2 billion, up 1.4% year-over-year. Operating income and net income reported KRW 1,455.9 billion and KRW 1,059.7 billion, respectively.
Let me now turn to business highlights for 2023 and strategic directions in accordance with the AI Pyramid Strategy. First, I'd like to cover the AI infrastructure domain, which serves as the foundation of the AI Pyramid. Supported by the continued increase in utilization rates, data center revenue for 2023 achieved a 30% growth year-over-year. Demand for data centers that accommodate GPUs is expected to grow significantly with the arrival of the AI era. Therefore, SK Telecom plans to drive the data center business more strongly focused on the next-generation AI data centers and global expansion.