China Mobile Reports Net Profit of 106.2 Billion Yuan in First Three Quarters, Down 7.9% YoY
nashnova research
China Mobile's first-three-quarter net profit fell 7.9% year-on-year to RMB 106.2 billion, with profit declining far faster than revenue — a sign that rising costs are squeezing margins.
How much did revenue actually drop?
Operating revenue came in at RMB 780.3 billion, down 1.8% y/y — a manageable decline at the top line.
Core telecom revenue, however, fell 3.7% to RMB 657.7 billion — twice the rate of the headline number.
This means → non-core income (investment gains, ancillary businesses) is cushioning the total, but the bread-and-butter telecom business is shrinking faster than it looks.
Why is profit falling so much harder than revenue?
Net profit dropped 7.9%, while revenue slipped only 1.8% — profit is falling more than four times as fast.
EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation, essentially the cash a company earns before accounting deductions — came in at RMB 247.5 billion, down 6.7%.
In plain terms = revenue shrank a little, but the money actually kept shrank a lot more. The gap is what costs ate up.
How much cost pressure is there?
The EBITDA margin stands at 31.7% — for every RMB 100 of revenue, only about RMB 32 reaches operating profit.
The profit decline (7.9%) far outpaces the revenue decline (1.8%). This reflects costs that are not contracting alongside revenue — and may still be growing.
This means → for investors, the question is not just "can revenue recover?" but whether management can rein in costs.
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