Hutchison Telecommunications International reported key performance indicators for the second quarter of 2009. The Group’s total customer base increased 36.5% to approximately 11.6 million on a like-for-like basis compared with last year, with the net gain mostly contributed by its Indonesian operation.
In Indonesia, the customer base grew to 6.4 million with a record 1.1 million net additions during the quarter. The network now has over 7,300 sites and is on track to reach 9,000 base stations on-air with a population coverage of over 75% by the end of 2009.
The Israeli operation maintained its 3G customer growth momentum which drove the 3G customer base to over 1.1 million.
Hutchinson’s operation in Vietnam successfully launched GSM service under the brand name Vietnamobile and started the second quarter with customer acquisitions of approximately 624,000.
The Vietnamese operation increased the number of base stations on-air to approximately 1,500 and is on track to take it to 3,000 by the end of the year. The operation acquired approximately 624,000 customers mostly in the prepaid segment. ARPU was at VND68,000 and MOU were initially high at 221 minutes due to short term promotions that allowed a high volume of on-net minutes. To date, over 1,800 base stations are on-air with 65% population coverage.
In Sri Lanka, operations were severely hampered by adverse economic conditions and fierce competition. Customers declined significantly and the operation turned from EBITDA positive in the same period last year into a loss of HK$39 million for the first six months of 2009. The operation’s customer base at the end of the quarter stood at 536,000 and will continue its network expansion to reach 800 sites and population coverage to 65% by the end of 2009.
In Thailand, Hutchinson remains in discussion about a potential exit for its Thailand operation with CAT Telecom Public Company Limited and has decided to exclude the KPIs of its Thailand operation in the quarterly announcement starting from this quarter.
The Group successfully spun off its Hong Kong and Macau operations in May 2009 to release value for shareholders. The combined share price of the two listed companies was over 50% higher than that of the share price of Hutchison Telecom on the day of the spin-off announcement.
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