Second Quarter Revenue Reaches 7.4274 Trillion Won, Operating Profit Hits 1.0148 Trillion Won
Real Estate Sales from Gangbuk Headquarters Boost Results Alongside Growth in AI and Cloud
"Strong Performance Expected to Continue in Second Half... Minimal Impact from DanTong Act Repeal"
KT reported a surprise performance in the second quarter of this year, surpassing 1 trillion won in operating profit. This is the first time KT has posted over 1 trillion won in operating profit for a single quarter, and the company has expressed its ambition to continue delivering strong results in the second half of the year.
On August 11, KT announced in a regulatory filing that its consolidated operating profit for the second quarter of 2025 was provisionally tallied at 1.0148 trillion won, up 105.4% from the same period last year. Revenue for the same period increased by 13.5% to 7.4274 trillion won.
Office sketch related to KT's plan to launch the super-large AI 'Mideum'. Photo by Yongjun Cho jun21@
KT explained that these results reflect the growth of its core businesses, such as telecommunications and AI transformation (AX), as well as one-off real estate sales profits from the development of the Gangbuk Headquarters site. Since real estate profits were included in this quarter's results, operating profit is expected to return to typical levels in the future.
Excluding subsidiaries, KT's standalone revenue and operating profit for the second quarter were 4.7728 trillion won and 468.7 billion won, respectively. Compared to the same period last year, revenue rose by 4.9% and operating profit by 30.6%.
Breaking down the second quarter results by business segment, service revenue from the wireless business increased by 1.6% year-on-year to 1.7817 trillion won. This was driven by a net increase in number portability subscribers and an expanded 5G subscriber base. As of the second quarter of this year, 5G subscribers accounted for 79.5% of KT's total handset subscribers.
Revenue from the wireline business was 1.3345 trillion won, up 1.4% year-on-year. In May, KT became the first in Korea to surpass 10 million high-speed internet subscribers, and related revenue also grew by 2.1% compared to the same period last year.
In the media business, despite a decline in video-on-demand (VOD) revenue, overall revenue increased by 0.8% year-on-year, supported by a net increase in IPTV subscribers and greater use of premium plans. Enterprise service revenue increased by 4.5% year-on-year, driven by growth in telecommunications and AI/IT businesses. In particular, the AI/IT sector grew by 13.8% year-on-year, thanks to strong performance in Design&Build and cloud businesses.
KT Group affiliates also posted solid results. KT Cloud saw revenue grow by 23.0% year-on-year as both data center (DC) and cloud businesses expanded. Real estate subsidiary KT Estate reported a 2.0% year-on-year increase in revenue, driven by growth in office and hotel leasing. In particular, the hotel division benefited from holiday demand and a strategy focused on premium rooms.
In the financial sector, BC Card maintained operating profit at a level similar to the same period last year through profitability enhancement strategies. Internet-only bank K Bank surpassed 14 million customers as of the end of June. Its deposit balance increased by 22.5% year-on-year to 26.8 trillion won, while its loan balance rose by 10.8% to 17.4 trillion won.
Starting in the third quarter of this year, KT plans to accelerate its AX business based on the independently developed large language model (LLM) 'Mideum 2.0' and global partnerships. According to its AI multimodal strategy roadmap, KT will sequentially introduce Mideum 2.0, state-of-the-art (SOTA) models from global companies, and GPT models developed in collaboration with Microsoft (MS).
Additionally, as Korea's first premium partner of Palantir, KT plans to offer services optimized for the Korean market by combining KT's cloud and network infrastructure with Palantir's core solutions.
Furthermore, to strengthen its security capabilities, KT plans to invest more than 1 trillion won in information security over the next five years. Through this, the company aims to establish a robust security system and expand its dedicated workforce.
KT's second quarter dividend for this year has been set at 600 won per share, a 20% increase from the same period last year. The dividend will be paid on August 14. Starting this quarter, KT has introduced a "pre-dividend, post-investment" system, in which the decision and amount of dividends are disclosed in advance. The 250 billion won share buyback, part of the value-up program announced in November last year, is scheduled for completion on August 13.
Office sketch related to KT's plan to launch the super-large AI 'Mideum'. Photo by Yongjun Cho jun21@
Jang Min, KT's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Vice President, said, "We were able to achieve significant performance improvement thanks to the solid growth of our core telecommunications business and the results of the group's key portfolio. Going forward, we will accelerate our transformation into an AICT company, achieve sustainable growth, and faithfully implement our value enhancement plan to further elevate KT's value."
Regarding KT's performance in the second half of the year, CFO Jang stated, "Although we posted strong results in the second quarter due to one-off real estate factors, we believe that even excluding these, we achieved solid results compared to last year. We expect strong performance to continue in the second half, driven by ongoing growth in service revenue."
He also predicted that there would be no overheated competition in the mobile telecommunications market following the repeal of the Distribution Structure Improvement Act for Mobile Communication Devices (commonly known as the 'DanTong Act'). He said, "After the repeal of the DanTong Act, the launch of the Galaxy flagship did not lead to the kind of overheated competition that some had feared. While competition may intensify if new products such as the iPhone are released in the future, we do not expect such competition to be prolonged."
Explaining why he does not expect prolonged competition, he said, "The penetration rate of 5G has exceeded 80%, and consumers are replacing their devices less frequently. In addition, telecommunications operators now need to focus on investments in AI, IT, and new businesses, so we do not expect fierce competition in the wireless market to persist over the long term."
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