As of April 24, China Mobile, China United Network Communications Limited(600050) , China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) three major communication operators have disclosed the first quarterly report of 2022. The financial report shows that the total number of 5g users of the three major operators is 849 million, and the growth rate of new 5g users is better month by month. According to the indicator of net profit attributable to the parent company, the three companies achieved a total net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company of 34.854 billion yuan; If calculated based on a total of 90 days in the first quarter, the average daily income is about 387 million yuan.
On the other hand, the data of the first quarterly report shows that innovative businesses such as digitization are becoming the main force of revenue increment of operators. On this basis, the three major operators have strengthened shareholder returns and employee incentives, and increased the proportion of dividends.
However, combined with the annual report data, it is not difficult to find that in nearly three years after 5g commercial use, there are only more than 1.5 million 5g base stations of the three major operators, and each 5g base station shares no more than Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.Ltd(600000) . Compared with the rapid progress of 4G commercial use in that year, the pace of 5g is significantly slower.
day earning 387 million
On April 20, China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) released the first quarter report, which showed that the revenue was 118576 billion yuan, an increase of 11.5% year-on-year, of which the service revenue was 110024 billion yuan, an increase of 9.9%. The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 7.223 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.1%.
On April 21, China Mobile released the first quarter report of 2022. During the reporting period, the company achieved a revenue of 227.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%. Among them, the main business income was 193.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.1%. The net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was RMB 25.6 billion, an increase of 6.5% year-on-year.
On April 21, China United Network Communications Limited(600050) announced that the operating revenue in the first quarter of 2022 was RMB 89.022 billion, an increase of 8.2% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was RMB 2.031 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20%.
In the first quarter, China Mobile’s net profit was 25.656 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5% China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) the net profit was 7.223 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.1% China United Network Communications Limited(600050) the net profit was 2.031 billion yuan, an increase of 20.0% year-on-year.
From the first quarter results of the three companies, China Mobile’s revenue grew the fastest, at 14.6%; According to the net profit attributable to the parent company, the three companies have achieved a total net profit of 34.854 billion yuan. Based on this calculation, they earn about 387 million yuan a day.
At the same time, from the perspective of business growth, the three major operators turn their business development focus to digital transformation business. The performance bonus released has largely contributed to the double increase of the revenue and profit of the three operators.
Based on this, in 2021, the dividend proportions of China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) (H shares), China Mobile (H shares) and China United Network Communications Limited(600050) (H shares) reached 60%, 60% and 46% respectively, China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) said to increase the dividend proportion to 70% three years after the listing of a shares, and China Mobile will increase the dividend proportion to 70% within three years from 2021.
At the same time, China Mobile (A-share, 2022) and China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) (A-share, 2021) respectively issued plans to increase their holdings, with an increase amount of no less than 3 billion yuan (no more than 5 billion yuan) and 4 billion yuan respectively; China Mobile (Hong Kong stock) announced the repurchase plan at the beginning of 2022, and the total number of repurchases shall not exceed 10% of the total number of issued Hong Kong shares; At the beginning of 2022, China United Network Communications Limited(600050) also issued a restricted stock incentive plan.
Soochow Securities Co.Ltd(601555) research report believes that operators pay full attention to shareholder return and employee incentive. With the rapid development of innovative business, they are full of performance confidence.
digital business becomes the main force to increase revenue
In the first quarter, China Mobile’s ICT (big data, information technology) business revenue was 23.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 50.9% China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) ‘s industrial digital business revenue reached 29.414 billion yuan, an increase of 23.2% year-on-year.
While China United Network Communications Limited(600050) the Internet of things business revenue reached 2.121 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 40.7%. In terms of “big computing”, the revenue was 9.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 114%; IDC’s revenue was 6.231 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.5%; In terms of “big data”, the revenue was 972 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54.1%.
According to the annual report data, by the end of December 2021, China Mobile has accumulated 407000 available IDC racks, an increase of 13.06% year-on-year. At the same time, the financial report shows that China Mobile will continue to implement the deployment of the national “counting East and counting West” project and increase the capital expenditure of computing network. It is expected to invest about 48 billion yuan in computing network construction in 2022, and put into operation about 450000 available IDC racks at the end of 2022; In terms of cloud servers, China Mobile has put into operation more than 480000 units by the end of December 2021.
In terms of telecommunications, by the end of 2021, China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) has accumulated 470000 externally available IDC racks (an increase of 50000 compared with 2021), with a year-on-year increase of 11.90%. According to the China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) announcement, it is expected to invest 6.5 billion yuan in IDC projects, build 45000 racks, invest 14 billion yuan in cloud resources projects and put into operation 160000 cloud servers in 2022.
Throughout 2021, China Mobile’s cloud revenue reached 24.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 114% China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) Tianyi cloud’s revenue reached 27.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 102%, and the cloud business maintained rapid growth. It can also be seen that digital services such as cloud services are becoming an important growth pole of operators’ revenue.
In addition, the first quarterly report showed that the revenue of the three major operators in the industrial Internet totaled 72.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.35%, accounting for 18.8% of service revenue, an increase of 3.9 percentage points over 2021.
Among them, China Mobile’s ICT business revenue reached 23.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 50.9%, accounting for 12.2% of service revenue, an increase of 3.9 percentage points over 2021 China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) industry digital business revenue reached 29.4 billion yuan, an increase of 23.2% year-on-year, accounting for 26.7% of service revenue, an increase of 2.1 percentage points over 2021 The Internet revenue of China United Network Communications Limited(600050) industry reached 19.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.8%, accounting for 23.9% of service revenue, an increase of 5.4 percentage points over 2021, of which the cloud revenue of China Unicom increased by 114% to 9.12 billion yuan.
The above data also shows that under the guidance of cloud services and other services, the industrial Internet revenue of operators has continued the previous rapid growth momentum.
5g package users totaling over 800 million
According to the latest operation data disclosed by the three operators, by the end of March 2022, the total number of 5g package users of the three operators had reached 850 million, of which China Mobile / China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) / 6 Hainan Jingliang Holdings Co.Ltd(000505) g users were 470 million, 210 million and 170 million respectively. In terms of penetration rate, by the end of March 2022, the penetration rate of China Mobile / China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) 5g was 48.3% / 55.5% respectively.
According to the economic operation of 1q22 communication industry issued by the Ministry of industry and information technology, as of the end of March, the total number of mobile phone base stations in China had reached 10.04 million, a net increase of 81000 over the end of last year. At the end of the year, there were 1555000 mobile base stations, accounting for 2.5% of the total number of mobile base stations. Among them, 1340005g base stations were newly built in 1q22, with a year-on-year increase of 179.2%.
From the perspective of capital expenditure, China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) it is estimated that the capital expenditure in 2022 will be 93 billion yuan, of which 5g network investment accounts for 36.6%, reaching 34 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.5%. Its executives said that the scale of 5g investment has decreased steadily compared with recent years, and its proportion in revenue has continued to decrease. Reducing capital expenditure will help to save expenses and improve performance.
China United Network Communications Limited(600050) did not announce the capital expenditure expectation, but it built and shared 5g network with China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) and China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) reduced 5g network investment, and Unicom’s simultaneous decline should be within the expectation.
In terms of China Mobile, the capital expenditure is expected to be 185.2 billion yuan in 2022, of which 5g related capital expenditure is about 110 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.5%. Its executives said that the capital expenditure will show a gradual downward trend, and the proportion of capital expenditure in revenue is expected to be reduced to less than 20% in three years. The previous data shows that the 5g related business data is still in a state of rapid growth, and the reduction of expenses is opposite to the development of the business.
For this reason, there is a market view that the growth rate of 5g base stations built by operators will gradually decrease until there is a negative growth; At the same time, as the main revenue growth in the previous year came from industrial Internet and cloud services, the probability of 5g related services did not contribute much to the revenue growth.
On the other hand, the operating cost of 5g business is not low. Some data show that the investment cost of 5g base station is 2.4 times that of 4G base station, and the electricity cost of 5g base station is almost three times that of 4G base station. The high electricity cost, disproportionate revenue growth, or the reason for operators to reduce investment.
