3 telecoms' Q3 profits to jump 84% to $1.04 bil.

Three major telecom companies — SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus — are expected to report an 83.56 percent year-on-year jump in combined third-quarter operating profits to 1.37 trillion won ($1.04 billion), as one-off costs from last year’s hacking incident and voluntary retirement program fade.

Their combined revenue is also forecast to rise 1.54 percent to about 15.35 trillion won.

According to financial data provider FnGuide, the increase largely reflects a low base from last year, when SK Telecom incurred expenses related to a SIM card data breach and LG Uplus recorded costs for a voluntary retirement program.

The combined figure would also be 10.47 percent higher than the 1.24 trillion won recorded in the third quarter of 2024, putting earnings above pre-incident levels.

SK Telecom is expected to lead the recovery, with an operating profit soaring 981.5 percent year-on-year to 523.9 billion won and revenue rising 11.87 percent to about 4.45 trillion won.

The company’s operating profit slumped to 48.4 billion won in the third quarter last year after the breach in April led to costly SIM replacements and customer compensation. This year’s forecast would bring its operating profit close to the pre-incident level of 533.3 billion won in the third quarter of 2024.

Beyond the easing impact of last year’s one-off costs, a recovery in its core mobile business is expected to support earnings. Growth at its subsidiary SK Broadband, driven by higher data center utilization and new enterprise customers, should also contribute to the rebound.

Meanwhile, KT is forecast to post an operating profit of 549.6 billion won, up 2.13 percent year-on-year, while revenue is expected to decline 2.24 percent to about 6.97 trillion won.

Sluggish handset sales are expected to offset modest growth in wireless, internet and enterprise services, weighing on revenue. Slower service revenue growth and operating costs are also expected to limit profit growth.

However, KT’s wireless business is expected to gradually recover, while stronger performance at subsidiaries such as KT Cloud and KT Estate could provide an additional boost to earnings over the longer term.

LG Uplus is projected to post an operating profit of 300.1 billion won, up 85.64 percent from the same period a year earlier, when its voluntary retirement expenses pushed earnings down to 161.7 billion won.

The company is expected to benefit from the absence of those one-off costs, alongside efforts to curb labor and other operating expenses. The recovery is also expected to reflect its focus on higher-margin businesses and efficiency gains from artificial intelligence (AI) transformation initiatives.