South Korea's SK Telecom's third-quarter net profit fell 22% on year as it had booked a large, one-time gain in 2005, but operating profit rose after it raised the interconnection fees it charges other carriers, a Dow Jones report said.
The Dow Jones report said SK's net profit for the July-September quarter was 456.8 billion won ($1.77 billion), down from 587.9 billion won ($2.3 billion) a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. The result was below the median estimate of KRW483 billion of nine analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.
The Dow Jones report said SK's sales rose to 2.71 trillion won ($10.5 billion) from 2.60 trillion won, while operating profit climbed 13% to 758.1 billion won ($2.94 billion) from 670.9 billion won.
In the third quarter of last year, the company booked an after-tax gain of 127.4 billion won ($494 million) from the sale of a stake in its handset making unit, the report said.
For the first nine months, SK Telecom posted 1.17 trillion won in net profit and operating profit of 2.05 trillion won, the Dow Jones report said.