Hong Kong's HKBN has reported a 22% year-on-year increase in revenue for FY18 to HK$3.94 billion ($502.9 million), as a result of accelerated growth in both its residential and enterprise segments.
Residential revenue for the financial year ending in August increased by 16% to HK$2.28 billion, mainly driven by robust mobile revenue growth.
Residential ARPU improved by 5% to HK$176 per month, but residential broadband subscribers fell 1% to 860,000 as a result of churn of price sensitive customers.
Enterprise services revenue meanwhile increased by 14% to HK$1.38 billion, with enterprise customers growing by 6% to 57,000 and enterprise ARPU up 3% to HK$1,510 per month.
HKBN's residential mobile subscriber base increased by 80% to 265,000 with mobile ARPU increasing by 24% year-on-year to HK$147 per month.
The company also enjoyed a strong year for OTT services, with the total number of set top boxes ordered increasing by 59% year-on-year to 835,000. The majority of HKBN's residential customers have now ordered at least one OTT set top box.
Our robust quad-play presence in the residential market and a far bigger presence in the enterprise market today were a function of our strategic actions 3-4 years ago. Key to this success was our sequential long-term incentive alignment via Co-Ownership Plan II, in which over 330 supervisor-and-above-level Talents invested their savings to buy HKBN stock with 3-year tenures,” HKBN CEO NiQ Lai said.
“We are now in the process of revamping our Co-Ownership Plan III which we aim to seek shareholder approval after the closing of the proposed WTT merger (subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals).”
HKBN announced a planned HK$10.5 billion merger with WTT holdings in August. WTT offers enterprise telecoms services to over 56,000 companies across more than 5,400 buildings in Hong Kong.