KT recorded its largest annual sales since its listing in 1998. Despite the difficult external envir..

KT recorded its largest annual sales since its listing in 1998. Despite the difficult external environment, it has actively jumped into new artificial intelligence (AI) projects. Its strategy is to accelerate its transition into an artificial intelligence information and communication technology (AICT) company by strengthening cooperation with global big tech in the future.

KT announced on the 13th that it had posted 26.4312 trillion won in sales based on its consolidated financial statements last year. It is up 0.2 percent year-on-year. Operating profit remained at 809.5 billion won. Net income for the current period was estimated at 451 billion won. Both operating profit and net profit were halved compared to the previous year.

It came as operating profit turned to a deficit in the fourth quarter of last year. One-time labor costs incurred by improving the workforce structure were reflected. KT conducted voluntary retirement (2,700 employees) and manpower transfer (1,700 employees) for about 4,500 employees in the fourth quarter of last year. About 1 trillion won was spent in the process. The sluggishness of subsidiaries KT SkyLife, BC Card, and KT Studio Genie also affected.

Even in this situation, KT explained that it is meaningful that service sales exceeded KRW 16 trillion for the first time thanks to the stable growth of corporate consumer transactions (B2C) and corporate transactions (B2B) businesses.

By business division, sales of wireless business increased by 1.3% from the previous year. The proportion of 5G subscribers is 77.8% of all handset subscribers. Wireless service sales rose 1.7% year-on-year due to an increase in the number of 5G subscribers, the roaming business, and steady growth in affordable phones (MNVO). Fixed-line business sales were not much different from the previous year.

The AI Conversion (AX) project, centered on the AI Contact Center (AICC) and smart mobility, earned 3.56 trillion won. During this period, its subsidiary KT Cloud also became a beneficiary, growing 15.5% to KRW 783.2 billion in sales.

KT is planning to cooperate with Microsoft in earnest this year. In October last year, KT signed an AI business cooperation with Microsoft to invest 2.4 trillion won over five years. In the first half of this year, it will jointly develop and launch a Sovereign AI model and cloud service suitable for Korea, and launch a subsidiary specializing in AX consulting to enter the solution market. At the same time, it seeks to maximize profitability by organizing low-profit businesses.

“The investment in 5G is almost over now, but it is unlikely that investment in 6G will happen in the near future,” said Jang Min, the CFO’s executive director, at a conference call on the day’s earnings announcement. “I think it is a long-term thing because technology standards will be made after 2028 and investments will be made after that.”

“We expect 28 trillion won in sales on a consolidated basis this year,” he said. “We will release a Korean secure public cloud with enhanced security within the first quarter and release a Korean AI model based on GPT-4o within the second quarter.” To this end, AI models are learning data from various fields such as history, politics, and law.

“We are working hard to select 30 strategic customers in MS and Korea to provide services first,” he said, adding, “We also plan to establish an AX specialized organization to deploy competent employees to meet customers.”

Meanwhile, KT decided to pay 500 won per share in the fourth quarter of last year. It will also buy 250 billion won worth of treasury stocks and incinerate them this year. KT previously announced that it would remove 1 trillion won worth of stocks from its books by 2028 as part of its corporate value enhancement plan.