China Unicom net hits 2b yuan as cloud service booms

Gordon Yang

Telecommunications firm China Unicom's (0762) net profit rose 10.07 percent to 2.06 billion yuan (HK$ 2.21 billion) in 2024 from a year earlier, thanks to surging cloud business.

The final dividend was 0.1562 yuan per share, bringing the total annual dividend to 0.4043 yuan, up 20 percent year-on-year, with the payout ratio increasing by 5 percentage points to 60 percent.

Revenue rose 4.6 percent to 38.96 billion yuan during the same period, with service revenue rising by over 3 percent to 345.98 billion yuan. Meanwhile, its cloud revenue surged 17.1 percent to 68.6 billion yuan.

Last year, capital expenditure decreased by 17 percent to 61.37 billion yuan, with computing power investment rising by 19 percent. China Unicom expects computing power investment to accelerate by 28 percent this year, with total fixed asset investment projected at approximately 55 billion yuan.

Chairman and chief executive Chen Zhongyue said capital expenditure in 2025 is expected to reach approximately 55 billion yuan, with computing power investment anticipated to grow by 28 percent year-on-year.

He also said that a dedicated budget for critical infrastructure and significant artificial intelligence projects for 2025 has been set aside.