South Korean operator KT more than doubled quarterly net additions in Q2, benefitting from the fallout of rival SK Telecom’s data breach in April, and booked record operating profit.

The operator picked up more than 650,000 mobile subscribers in Q2. Year-on-year it increased its mobile user base by 11.7 per cent to 19.8 million; 5G adds improved 7.7 per cent to 10.9 million.

Net profit jumped 78.6 per cent year-on-year to KRW733.3 billion ($527.7 million), with operating profit doubling to KRW1 trillion, supported by one-off gains from real estate sales.

Operating revenue grew 13.5 per cent to KRW7.4 trillion, aided by sales of goods more than doubling to KRW1.6 trillion. KT said the growth was driven by its telecoms, real estate, cloud and data centre businesses.

CFO Min Jang noted in its earnings call KT expects to continue with the good momentum from Q2 into the second half, driven by “a very solid service revenue uptrend”.

Wireless service revenue edged up 1.6 per cent to KRW1.7 trillion; ARPU rose 2.1 per cent to KRW35,236. MVNO users increased 7.2 per cent to 7.6 million.

The CFO said KT doesn’t expect increased competition after the ban on handset subsidies was lifted to be long-lasting, as 5G penetration is above 80 per cent, the handset replacement cycle is longer and operators are focused on investing in AI and other new businesses.

To reassure customers after its rival was hit by a data leak, he said the company will invest KRW1 trillion in information security over the next five years.

Its cloud unit grew 23 per cent to KRW221.5 billion; B2B services increased 4.5 per cent to KRW922.7 billion.

H1 capex, including the outlay for its subsidiaries, inched up 2.2 per cent year-on-year to KRW1.4 trillion.