HKBN Ltd. Announces Strong FY2015 Results, Delivering High GROWTH and High Yield

HONG KONG, Nov. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- HKBN Ltd. ("HKBN" or the "Company"; SEHK Stock Code: 1310) today reported strong financial and business performance for the year ended 31 August 2015 ("FY2015"). During the period, the Company accelerated its subscription growth in both residential and enterprise businesses, setting a strong foundation for future harvesting. Key figures of FY2015 results include:

• Turnover, EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow increased year-on-year by 10%, 16% and 26% respectively to HK$2,341 million, HK$979 million and HK$392 million.
• Net additions of residential broadband subscriptions accelerated to 62,000 (FY2014: 32,000) for a total of 754,000 as of 31 August 2015; market share was 36.6% as of 31 August 2015*, up from 34.2% as of 31 August 2014; Average monthly broadband churn rate improved from 0.8% to 0.6% during the year.
• Net Profit increased by 95% year-on-year to HK$104 million.

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The Board of Directors has recommended the payment of a final dividend of 20 HK cents per share.

Strong growth in both subscription and ARPU despite perceived intense competition in residential broadband business

Residential revenue grew by 8% year-on-year to HK$1,757 million as we continued to gain market share by converting our competitors' legacy copper-based customers to our fibre-based services. While the Hong Kong residential broadband market increased 39,700 subscriptions in FY2015*, we outperformed the market by adding 62,000 subscriptions to our base, representing a year-on-year growth of over 9% which almost doubled the growth rate achieved last year. Residential ARPU continued to rise with a year-on-year increase of 5%.

Strong growth in both subscription and revenue in enterprise market

The Company's enterprise business is expanding on strong momentum with a significant year-on-year 22% growth in the number of enterprise customers, reflecting the successful implementation of the "3 P" strategy in expanding Penetration (fibre network coverage), Products (comprehensive suite of product and service offerings) and People (headcount) for the enterprise business. The 2% decrease in APRU to HK$1,010 is due to our strategic focus on smaller enterprise accounts of 10 people and below, which has borne fruit with a 12% increase in enterprise revenue to HK$476 million.

Sustaining high GROWTH and high yield

"We are very excited by the opportunities awaiting our industry over the next 5 years. We look forward to 2016 to be the year that Over-The-Top (the "OTT") content providers make their disruptive presence felt in Hong Kong and envision the OTT industry surpassing traditional legacy Pay-TV and IP-TV in terms of revenue by 2020. Better content and mass 4K Ultra High Definition video take-up should fuel demand for our ultra-high-speed fibre broadband services for many years to come," said William Yeung, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Owner and NiQ Lai, Head of Talent Engagement, Chief Financial Officer & Co-Owner, of HKBN.  

For details of HKBN's results in FY2015, please refer to the announcement:
http://www.hkbn.net/new/en/about-us--investor-engagement--financial-results.shtml

*Based on our broadband subscriptions and the latest available OFCA statistics as of 31 August 2015

About HKBN Ltd.

HKBN Ltd. (SEHK Stock Code: 1310), operating through Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited, is the largest provider of residential fibre broadband services (symmetrical 100Mbps and above) in Hong Kong by number of residential subscriptions, with a core purpose to "Make Our Hong Kong a Better Place to Live". HKBN offers an array of world-class enterprise solutions, including broadband and data connectivity, voice communication, managed Wi-Fi solutions, Cloud solutions and IT advisory services, as well as a diversified portfolio of residential broadband and Wi-Fi access, communication and entertainment services. HKBN owns an extensive fibre network in Hong Kong, which covers over 2.1 million residential homes passed, representing approximately 79% of Hong Kong's total residential units, and more than 2,000 commercial buildings. HKBN takes great pride in developing its 2,400 plus Talents into a competitive advantage.

Appendix: HKBN FY2015 Shareholder Letter

HKBN FY2015 Shareholder Letter

Dear Fellow Shareholders,

We look back at FY2015 with pride as we have taken another step forward with our core purpose to "Make our Hong Kong a better place to live". At HKBN, we realise that with only 1,338 colleagues based in Hong Kong, we are too small to change Hong Kong directly but we are big enough to take the pioneering steps for others to follow.

Key FY2015 achievements include:

1)    We delivered a solid set of results with 62,000 net additions of residential broadband subscriptions (adding 2.4% market share gain) together with Revenue, EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow growth of 10%, 16% and 26% respectively.

2)    We extended our Co-Owners from about 90 pre Initial Public Offering to currently over 270, representing the majority of our supervisors and above colleagues.  As our Co-Ownership requires a "family" investment, this expanded co-ownership reflects higher trust and commitment from our colleagues.

3)    We implemented a number of material LIFE-work priorities, significantly shortening our work week, freeing up more time to spend with our families.

We are very excited by the opportunities awaiting our industry over the next 5 years. We look forward to 2016 to be the year that Over-The-Top (the "OTT") content providers make their disruptive presence felt in Hong Kong, and envision the OTT industry surpassing traditional legacy Pay-TV and IP-TV in terms of revenue by 2020. Better content and mass 4K Ultra High Definition video take-up should fuel demand for our ultra-high-speed fibre broadband services for many years to come.

At HKBN, we dare to dream big. We dare to shoot for the stars, and sometimes miss, as it is better to settle for hitting the moon than aiming for the hills and getting there.

Sincerely yours,

SOURCE HKBN Ltd.