KT reports 6.1% decline in Q3 operating profit

KT reported a third-quarter consolidated revenue of 6.99 trillion won and an operating profit of 505.3 billion won, representing a 1.8% and 6.1% decrease year-on-year, respectively. The decline in profit was attributed to a base effect from one-time real estate sales gains in the previous year, as well as increased costs related to AI Transformation (AX) initiatives and the conclusion of a customer reward program in July.

Despite the dip in profit, the company saw growth in its core subsidiaries. KT Cloud maintained stable revenue growth driven by data center and cloud services, while KT Estate saw a 39.1% revenue increase due to hotel and real estate development. Additionally, Kbank reported a 119% surge in net profit.

KT is focusing on expanding its AI infrastructure, aiming to grow its AI data center capacity to over 1GW by 2031. The company also plans to enhance global data transmission by adding over 90Tbps of submarine cable capacity and diversifying its landing stations. To boost shareholder value, KT completed a 250 billion won share buyback in September.