By Kim Yoo-chul, Cho Mu-hyun
KT, the nation’s No. 2 mobile carrier, said Thursday that it is aiming to increase its revenue from overseas business to 4 trillion won ($3.4 billion) by 2015.
To that end, the company plans to focus on emerging markets by purchasing stakes in telecommunications firms there and to form more business alliances and partnerships.
``KT will go global. Specifically, we are aiming to create 4 trillion won outside the Korean peninsula by the end of 2015,’’ said Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) Kim Hong-jin in a press conference at its main office in Seoul.
Kim said that the company will focus on four key areas ― strengthening strategic partnerships with overseas clients, partnering global telecommunications companies, acquiring new information and communication technology and commercializing group-wide products.
The revenue target is ambitious given KT’s weak presence globally ― last year, it created 700 billion won overseas, just 2.8 percent of total revenue.
``Our previous approaches for overseas businesses started yielding visible profits. KT is seeing more business chances by selling our competitive business know-how to major partners,’’ said Kim. The company’s global business has been growing 9 percent on average since 2004.
As part of a back-up plan, the company plans to expand the number of staff to handle this to 1,600 by 2015 from the current 460, he said.
KT is currently involved in various projects with British Telecom in the United Kingdom, Bharti Airtel of India and other influential telecom companies in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Kim said the company is in negotiation with Softbank of Japan to jointly build a disaster recovery center in the wake of earlier massive earthquakes in the neighboring country.
Citing an explosive demand for applications in an era of data-intensive smartphones and tablets, the executive said it will expand alliances with China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo to sell more of its ``Olleh Market’’-branded mobile applications in Asia’s two biggest economic powerhouses.
If the envisioned goal is accomplished, revenue from global businesses may account for roughly 10 percent of the company's total sales.
Earlier this year, KT Chairman Lee Suk-chae pledged to transform KT into a global media logistics firm with annual revenue of 40 trillion won within three years.
At the conference, Kim said that the firm still has keen interest in investing in Telkom, South Africa, even after the government there rejected an offer to buy a 20 percent stake in the country’s biggest telecom firm.
``KT is still trying but with various approaches. But it’s too early to unveil our changed strategy for Telkom,’’ he said.