China Mobile books 8% growth in annual net profit

China Mobile has published its financial results for the year to end-December 2022, reporting a 10.5% increase in operating revenue and 8.0% increase in profit attributable to equity shareholders. The operator registered operating revenue of CNY937.26 billion (USD137.17 billion) for the twelve-month period, compared to CNY848.26 billion in 2021, with revenue from telecommunications services making up CNY812.06 billion of that total (up 8.1% year-on-year). Annual EBITDA improved by 5.8% y-o-y to CNY329.18 billion, although the EBITDA margin narrowed slightly from 36.7% to 35.1%. Net profit for the year grew from CNY116.15 billion in 2021 to CNY1125.46 billion. China Mobile counted a total of 975 million mobile subscriptions at the end of 2022 (up from 957 million a year earlier), including 614 million 5G package subscriptions, 327 million of which were 5G network subscriptions; the former includes all those signed up to a plan that allows them to use the 5G network whilst the latter is the total that used the network (i.e. had a compatible device and were in a 5G coverage area in addition to a 5G tariff). At the end of 2021, 5G package and network subscriptions had totalled 387 million and 207 million, respectively.