China Tower Corporation Limited (2Y11.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, present at today's event are the management team, including Mr. Zhang Zhiyong, Chairman and Executive Director; Mr. Chen Li, Executive Director and General Manager; and Mr. Hu Shaofeng, Chief Accountant. Today's event will be broken down to 2 parts. Firstly, there will be the presentation and then we're going to have the Q&A session. Firstly, we're going to invite Chairman, Mr. Zhang Zhiyong to brief you on our performance in the first half of 2025. Mr. Chair, the floor is yours.

Ladies and gentlemen, our press friends, good afternoon. Welcome, and thank you for coming here despite this very challenging weather today. Today, we have the interim results announcement of China Tower. And to ensure your safety and to encourage more investors to participate in today's announcement and discussion, we have opened up an online session as well. Present at today's event are Mr. Chen Li and Mr. Hu Shaofeng as well. I'm going to break today's presentation to 3 parts. Firstly, I'm going to give you the overall performance of the company in the first half, to be followed by the business performance by Mr. Chen Li and the financial performance by Mr. Hu Shaofeng. And finally, we 3 are going to answer your questions. So let's take a look at the overall performance of the company. The highlights of the company's performance for the first half were mainly reflected in the following 5 aspects. First, the company recorded sound operating performance with net profit increasing by 8% year-on-year. Second, sustained revenue growth supported by multiple pillars. The Two Wings business increased its contribution to 14% of total revenue. Third, upgrades in digital towers accelerated revenue of Smart Tower business and the revenue increased 18.7% year-on-year. Fourthly, we boosted the commercialization of research outcomes, steadily improved the efficiency of technological innovation. Fifthly, we shared the fruitful results with shareholders with interim dividend increasing by 21.6%. In terms of key indicators, as you can see from the table, the company recorded operating revenue of RMB 49.6 billion, a 2.8% increase year-on-year. In view of the related regulation issued by the Ministry of Finance, the company has changed its recognition of electricity revenue in the battery recharge business from the gross method to the net method, recording a comparable growth of 3.1%. Net profit was RMB 5.76 billion, up 8% year-on-year. EBITDA totaled RMB 34.23 billion, up 3.6% year-on-year. As at the end of June 2025, there were 3.844 million tenants with tower tenancy ratio at 1.81 and level of co-location was further enhanced. In the first half, the company's cash flow remained stable with net cash flow generated from operating activities reaching RMB 28.68 billion and free cash flow of RMB 16.29 billion. The slide shows the overall structure of our business. In the first half, the company seized the opportunities brought by Cyberpower, Digital China and Dual Carbon goals and revenue from TSP business reached RMB 42.46 billion, accounting for 85.6% of the total revenue. Revenue from the Two Wings business was RMB 6.94 billion, up 15.5% year-on-year. Comparable growth was 18.4%. Its proportion of total revenue increased to 14%, up by 1.6%. So our One Core and Two Wings strategy continued to deepen and our revenue structure continued to improve. Regarding our TSP business, the company sees the development opportunities brought by increased 5G network penetration and coverage and continue to improve resource coordination and sharing and enhanced professional operational capabilities to fully meet the network deployment needs of customers. TSP business was able to remain stable. For Tower business, 215,000, 5G base stations were built in the first half, bringing the total to 2.974 million. More than 95% of the 5G projects were delivered through site co-location. For DAS business, it gave full play to the advantages to the advantages of coordinated site entry, construction and co-build and co-share to help operators improve network coverage quickly and at low cost. In the first half, 1.17 billion square meters of areas of building was added, with total coverage reaching 13.85 billion square meters. The newly added coverage for subways and high-speed railway tunnels was 1,563 kilometers with total coverage reaching 30,878 kilometers. Regarding Smart Tower business, with its fit firmly in the realm of spatial digital intelligence governance, the company has applied its advantages in resource endowments and capabilities to transform telecom towers into digital towers to serve major strategies and projects of the country as well as continuously strengthening its Smart Tower business. First, the company identified customer demands focused on key industries such as land environmental protection, emergency response, water conservation and leveraged lease-based principle to advance strategic collaboration. It consolidated and expanded the leading edges in key scenarios such as farmland protection, straw burning, fisheries law enforcement and disaster alert. Second, the company refined products, advanced the construction and operation of the distributed platform and optimized distinctive algorithm warehouses for mid- to high point and developed high-quality data sets for digital intelligent governance, further improve the competitiveness of products in key service scenarios. Third, the company upgraded service delivery, developed high standard service systems, continued to elevate the service quality for customers in key industries. It reinforced local support and service teams to ensure swift response to customers' incremental development requirements. Fourth, the company fortified security, improved the technical protection systems and enhanced technical protection capabilities for network information security across data terminals, platforms and cloud networks. In the first half, the Smart Tower business grew strongly, achieving revenue of RMB 4.73 billion, up 18.7% year-on-year. As for Energy business, the company centered around its core business such as battery exchange and power backup and has drawn on its core competitive edges in products, services and platforms, strengthening its refined operations and sharpening the edges of the business. First, it centered around customers' needs, accelerated the launch of new battery exchange products, continue to enrich the standardized product system and consolidate product competitiveness. Second, it continued to promote the iteration and updates of battery exchange and power backup platforms to enhance the platform support. Third, it strengthened management of the entire asset life cycle and established a VIP user benefit system to enhance user perception, continue to deepen refined operations. Fourth, it upgraded online self-service and digital human functions for retail customers and provided comprehensive companion service system for corporate customers to improve customer satisfaction. In the first half, Energy business made revenue of RMB 2.21 billion, a 9.2% increase year-on-year and a comparable growth of 17.9%, thus advancing on a good development trend. In the first half, the company continued to deepen reforms to re-inject new vitality into high-quality development. First, it reinforced and enhanced management efficiency, advanced lean management, promoted quality improvement and efficiency enhancement and strengthened full life cycle asset management. It advanced intensive management, established and refined a comprehensive system for large-scale maintenance and construction, continuously enhancing professional capabilities in construction and operation. It advanced quality management to focus on project quality, product quality and service quality to enhance quality management levels and it advanced product management and standardized the full life cycle management. Second, it deepened and reinforced the regional reforms. It promoted the improvement and expansion of term-based and contractual management systems, reinforced operational responsibilities and stimulated vitality efficiency. Third, it highlighted industrial transformation renewal promoted the 100 major projects initiative. It continued to enhance digital capabilities in professional fields and promoted the One Core for all nationwide enhanced the asset management efficiency to fuel business growth. With its continuous effort to improve its technical innovation system, the company has seen the efficiency of scientific and technological innovation rising steadily. First, it strengthened R&D in critical technologies such as next-generation mobile communication, AI, edge computing, 5G Plus [ beta], 5G shared DAS, new energy and Internet of Things, et cetera. Second, by releasing a series of achievement lists, smoothing transformation channels, conducting scientific and technological achievement evaluations and promoting transformation through categorization measures. The company accelerated the channeling of technological achievements into production. Third, the company promoted the full list management mechanisms and steadily improve efficiency and effectiveness of innovation. In the first half, R&D investment and the team size increased by 87% and 29%, respectively, year-on-year, while the cumulative number of patent authorizations rose by 16% since the end of 2024. The company attaches great importance to shareholder returns and have adopted an active dividend policy that insists on sharing the fruits of our business development with all shareholders. The Board of Directors has resolved to distribute an interim dividend of RMB 0.13250 per share. A year-on-year increase of 21.6%. In the future, the company will actively create new corporate value, continuously improve profitability and create greater value for all shareholders. The company placed high emphasis on sustainable development and has actively fulfilled its ESG responsibilities. Firstly, it upholded the philosophy of green development. It promoted the circular utilization of resources and expanded the use of clean energy such as PV in base stations. By integration, digital intelligence technology, the company supports environmental causes, including the prevention and mitigation of air, water and soil pollution as well as ecological protection. It also provided diverse new energy applications to the public, such as battery exchange and charging to support green mobility. Second, it enhanced social well-being and people's livelihoods. It successfully completed major communication and network information security services for major events and provided emergency communication support during natural disaster relief missions such as bushfire prevention, typhoon response and flood control. It continued to improve telecommunication infrastructure in rural and remote areas, leveraging digital technology to support rural revitalization and eradicate digital divide. Thirdly, it continuously improved corporate governance. It ensured a clear delineation of responsibility and effective checks and balances between various governance entities. It is committed to advancing the development of legal and operational compliance management systems and improving the level of legal and compliant business management. It provided high-quality information disclosure, actively strengthen capital market communication and enhanced market recognition of the company. Looking ahead, the company will continue to uphold the philosophy of resource sharing and adhere to the One Core and Two Wings strategy to further enhance its core competitiveness and promote high-quality development. On the TSP business front, it will fully capitalize on the development opportunities brought by national policies, including the dual gigabit network joint construction and special projects such as signal upgrade, extension of broadband coverage to all border areas and the upgrades of the 5G sailing project to capture opportunities presented by the continuous expansion of 5G network penetration coverage in China, give full play to resource coordination to promote steady development of the TSP business. As for the Two Wings business, the company will actively implement digital intelligence governance and green and low carbon transformation development to quickly scale up the business. That wraps up my presentation. Now Mr. Chen Li will present the details of the company's business performance. Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman. Now I will talk about the company's business performance in the first half of the year. This table shows the revenue of our businesses and relevant changes and key operating data. I'm going to explain them in greater detail. In the first half, the revenue growth pattern supported by multiple pillars continue to deepen. Operating revenue reached RMB 49.6 billion, an increase of 3.1% on a comparable basis. In terms of growth structure, the TSP business segment has generally maintained stable growth. Within this segment, Tower business revenue experienced a slight decline due to operators streamlining tower construction demand and reducing social costs, while DAS business continued to grow rapidly, recording a 33.3% incremental revenue contribution, pushing revenue growth up by 1 percentage point. The incremental revenue contribution of the Two Wings business continued to grow, reaching 71.8%, of which 49.5% were from Smart Tower business, driving revenue growth up by 1.5 percentage points. The revenue contribution of the Energy business was 22.3%, boosting revenue by 0.7 percentage points. Next, I will talk about development of our key businesses in detail. Regarding Tower business, the company focused on addressing customers' needs. Firstly, it implemented embedded service mechanism with a focus on TSP's network construction planning, comprehensively and accurately grasped key demand information and acquired orders by customer types and by network standards or frequency bands. Second, it proactively conducted network coverage analysis, to identify weak coverage areas, enabling the development of comprehensive solutions and regional products to meet customer needs. And third, the company continuously tackled difficult sites, focused on solving customers' urgent and troubling problems, giving full play to its resource coordination ability to help customers improve network coverage quality. In the first half, revenue from Tower business reached RMB 37.8 billion, remaining basically flat compared with the same period last year. As at the end of June, the business had 3.579 million tenants, an increase of 2.5% year-on-year and tower tenancy ratio was 1.72. As for DAS business, first, the company strengthened resource coordination and sharing capabilities in key locations, deepened signal upgrade initiative, kept pace with key project construction, gave full play to the advantages of coordinated site entry, accelerated demand acquisition and enhanced market service support capabilities. Second, stepped up product innovation and applications, closely followed customer network development trends, strengthened innovation of DAS technologies, products and solutions, promoted new products and solutions such as active and passive DAS integration and shared multimode repeaters to expand the scale of DAS business. And third, the company enhanced its professional service capabilities by focusing on the coverage in lifts, underground car parks and high-speed rail 5G special project and utilized shared micropower repeaters to reduce signal resources and transmission investments, continuously improved professional service capabilities. In the first half, revenue from DAS business reached RMB 4.66 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12%, maintaining good growth momentum. For Smart Tower business, leveraging its edges of having the unique mid- to high point site resources and algorithm technology, the company focused on the special digital intelligence governance field and accelerated the transformation of 240,000 telecommunication towers to digital towers. It continued to optimize industry application products, enabling it to provide customized digital intelligence solutions in key industries such as land, emergency response, water resources and environmental protection, significantly improving its customer service capabilities. In the first half, Smart Tower business was able to maintain strong growth momentum with tower monitoring business making revenue of RMB 2.82 billion, 12.5% higher year-on-year, accounting for 59.7% of the total revenue of the business. Revenue from Tower Sharing business reached RMB 1.9 billion, up by 29.3% year-on-year. In the first half, based on the company's resource endowments and capability advantages in location plus computing plus power plus security, we continuously enhance the improvement of our capabilities. In terms of platform capability, it strengthened the construction and operating of the tower monitoring distributed platform with over 2,400 standardized access nationwide opening, it continued to enhance product performance and user experience of the platform. As for algorithm capability, it provided over 470 specific mid- to high point algorithms and established 490 million sample library to mid- to high point capabilities, enhancing the algorithm training and application and serving over 10,000 AI analytical scenarios with the accuracy rate for algorithm further enhanced. With respect to product capability, it continued to enhance the efficiency of developing the next iteration, 15 specialized industry applications with 1,000-plus functional iterations were developed. Product competitiveness was further enhanced. In service capability, strengthened major infrastructure system to deliver high-quality and efficient solutions. It enhanced professional operation and maintenance, upgrading unified monitoring capabilities on the platform and guaranteeing that clients business is under high-quality operation. In innovation capability, the company drove technological breakthroughs in fields such as the new era of AI and spatial digital intelligence governance and edge computing, transformed telecom shelters to data shelters, accelerating the application of edge computing scenarios such as digital intelligence governance, pan campuses, Internet and AI. For the development of battery exchange business, first, company actively capitalized on national new safe charging regulations to deepen penetration in key industries such as courier and delivery, continue to expand the customer base in battery exchange and recharge business. Meanwhile, the company deepened tiered customer management, delivering customized service based on user characteristics and continuously optimize the companion service system. As of 30th June 2025, the number of battery exchange users reached 1.47 million, further consolidating the company's market leadership position. Second, the company intensified operational management by accelerating the deployment of 4.0 battery exchange products while actively developing new 5.0 battery exchange products to enhance product competitiveness. Meanwhile, the company promoted the optimization of network for the core business circle for battery exchange and accelerated the construction of network for community charging facilities, continue to improve user convenience. As of 30th June 2025, the company already launched battery exchange services in over 320 cities and optimized the network deployment. In the first half, the battery exchange business generated revenue of RMB 1.32 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 14.4% on a comparable basis, maintaining robust growth momentum. For power backup business, the company continued to cultivate in key industries such as telecom, finance, education and typical scenarios to expand quality customer base. It conducted in-depth analysis of customer needs to meet customer special needs in areas such as power backup, power generation, power -- green power to reduce carbon reduction and monitoring and maintenance. The company also promoted comprehensive industry solutions to build the Energy Butler brand, realizing scalable development of the power backup business. In the first half, revenue from power backup business was RMB 890 million, up by 23.4% year-on-year. Next, Mr. Hu Shaofeng will introduce the company's financial performance in the first half.

Thank you, Mr. Chen Li. This table shows the company's key financial indicators in the first half of 2025. For the first half, the company maintained very steady growth. The company makes effective investment according to its business development and capacity building needs. In terms of our operating cost, it dropped. In terms of amortization and depreciation, there was a major drop. This is to meet the new demands of our customers. And capital expenditure on new site construction and augmentation in the first half of the year was RMB 6.60 billion, down RMB 1.44 billion year-on-year. For the repair and maintenance, it dropped by 6.2% year-on-year. That's because we try to rule out portable problems and improve quality. At the same time, we operate the [ tendering ] system and thus lowered the maintenance cost. In terms of site operation, we have a professional operation and our battery backup capability has been improved. And the site lease fee and others has been further lowered. For our OpEx, it's RMB 4.8 billion. That's to support our Two Wings business development and marketing expense, benefiting from the steady growth of our operating revenue, our profitability continued to improve. We realized a profit of RMB 8.6 billion, up by 0.5% year-on-year. EBITDA increased by 3.6% year-on-year to RMB 34.25 billion. Net profit was RMB 5.70 billion. The company in terms of its CapEx totaled RMB 12.392 billion, RMB 1.34 billion less than in the same period last year. Our new site construction and augmentation investment has been reduced effectively with the change of construction needs of operators. And CapEx, our new site construction augmentation first half was RMB 6.6 billion, down RMB 1.44 billion year-on-year. For site replacement improvement based on large-scale implementation of battery, power backup capacity in key scenarios in the early stages, the company carried out asset safety inspection rectifications and equipment upgrades. Relevant capital expenditure in the first half amounted to RMB 2.38 billion, down by RMB 830 million against the same period last year. For the Two Wings business, the company precisely allocated resources. CapEx for the Two Wings business in the first half was RMB 2.48 billion, an increase of RMB 600 million relative to the same period last year. Net cash flow generated from operating activities in the first half amounted to RMB 28.68 billion, a year-on-year decrease of RMB 4.15 billion and RMB 12.04 billion more when compared with the second half of last year, mainly attributed to the relative high cash flow base in the same period last year from centralized payment collection. As at 30th June 2025, the company's liability to asset ratio was 39.5%. Gearing ratio was 29.5%, 1.5 percentage points less than the end of last year. In the second half, the company will seize development opportunities, keeping its One Core and Two Wings strategy, strengthen lean management, improve operational efficiency and effectiveness and keep boosting its profitability so as to create greater value for shareholders. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]