SK Telecom Q1 net soars 66 pct

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL, May 6 (Yonhap) -- SK Telecom Co., South Korea's top mobile carrier, said Wednesday its first-quarter net profit hiked 65.6 percent from a year earlier, mainly due to the absence of one-off costs.

Net income reached 442.8 billion won (US$409.5 million) in the January-March period, compared with 267.3 billion won the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The figure, however, falls far short of the median consensus of 512 billion won in a poll conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.

The company's operating profit jumped 60 percent on-year to 402.7 billion won in the first quarter, with sales rising 0.9 percent to 4.2 trillion won over the cited period.

Shares of SK Telecom traded at 278,000 won late Wednesday morning, down 1.2 percent from the previous session's close. The earnings results were released during the trading hours.

elly@yna.co.kr
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