Taiwan-based Chunghwa Telecom has reported revenue of TWD51.1bn for the fourth quarter of 2009, an increase of 2.6% compared to the same period last year.

EBITDA for the quarter rose by 4.4% to TWD22.1bn and operating profit increased by 12.7% to TWD13.2bn, compared to the same period a year ago. The EBITDA margin and operating profit were 43.3% and 25.7%, respectively; both are up compared to 42.6% and 23.4%, respectively, for the fourth quarter of 2008.

The company’s net income rose by 24.6% to TWD10.6bn for the fourth quarter of 2009, primarily due to the TWD1.2bn financial asset impairment recognised in the fourth quarter in 2008.

For the year ended December 31, 2009, the company has reported total consolidated revenues of TWD198.4bn, a decrease of 1.6% compared to TWD201.67bn in 2008. Net income was down marginally to TWD43.75bn from TWS45.01bn in the same period last year.

For full year, mobile communications business revenue was down by 2.6% to TWD86.5bn, while mobile value-added services (VAS) revenue increased by 20.5% to TWD8.45bn. The internet business revenue and internet value-added services (VAS) revenue increased by 2.7% and 18%, respectively. Revenues from domestic fixed communications business and international fixed communications business registered marginal drops.

As of December 31, 2009, the company’s broadband subscribers reached 4.3 million, while ADSL subscribers decreased to 2.67 million. Mobile subscribers increased by 3.6% to 9.27 million and HiNet subscribers decreased by 35,000 totaling 4.07 million at the end of 2009.

Shyue-Ching Lu, chairman and chief executive officer of Chunghwa Telecom, said: We swiftly implemented cost controlling initiatives to address the weakened economic conditions, while also improving our value-added services, MOD/IPTV offering and key Enterprise solutions.

“Our firm commitment to investments in innovation has not wavered and, moving forward, we plan to continue enhance our VAS, accelerate our fibre deployment and further enrich our MOD/IPTV content in order to execute our growth plan.