KT (030200) Q4 2023 earnings summary

Executive summary

• 2023 consolidated revenue rose 2.9% YoY to KRW 26,387.0bn, while operating income fell 2.4% to KRW 1,649.8bn, mainly due to a one-time real estate sale gain in 2022.

• Growth reflected B2C and B2B services, subsidiaries, and expansion in AI, cloud, and data-center businesses.

Financial highlights

• 2023 consolidated service revenue was KRW 22,994.7bn, up 3.4% YoY; sale of goods was KRW 3,392.3bn, down 0.4%.

• 2023 consolidated EBITDA rose 2.1% YoY to KRW 5,459.9bn; net income was KRW 988.7bn, down 28.8%.

• Q4 consolidated revenue was KRW 6,698.4bn, up 0.9% QoQ; operating income was KRW 265.6bn, down 17.5% QoQ, and net income was a KRW 41.7bn loss.

• Separate revenue increased 0.4% YoY to KRW 18,371.4bn; separate operating income rose 1.5% to KRW 1,185.4bn.

Outlook and guidance

• Launched hyperscale AI Mi:dm for the private LLM market; plans include expanding AI capabilities through multi-LLM and global partnerships and growing subscription-based AICC customers.

• kt cloud growth initiatives focus on public and AI cloud services and IDC demand.