China Telecom reported its annual performance in 2019 yesterday. According to the statistics, the operating revenue was CNY 375.7 billion in 2019, down by 0.4% YoY; the profit attributed to shareholders reached CNY 20.517 billion, which decreased by 3.3% YoY and increased by 2.0% compared with that in 2018 upon the elimination of the one-off after-tax gain from the market listing of China Tower.
In 2019, the service revenue of China Telecom stood at CNY 357.6 billion, which was an increase of 2.0% YoY, continuing to maintain higher than the industrial average, whose mobile service income was CNY 175.5 billion, or a 4.7% increase YoY. The fixed network service income was CNY 182.1 billion, which was a decrease of 0.4% YoY, while the emerging business revenue accounted for 55.3% of the service income, contributing to the increase of the service income by 4.5%.
Furthermore, the annual capital expenditures in 2019 reached CNY 77.6 billion, and investments except for 5G have witnessed a decrease for four years in a row. The free cash flow was CNY 21.7 billion.