KT recorded strong performance in the first quarter due to a decrease in labor costs resulting from large-scale restructuring carried out last year and the reflection of profits from apartment development sales.
KT announced on the 13th that it recorded an operating profit of 688.8 billion won based on the consolidation financial statements for the first quarter of 2025. This is a 36% increase compared to the previous year. Revenue rose by 2.9% to 6.8451 trillion won. Net profit was recorded at 566.8 billion won, which represents a 44.2% increase from the previous year.
Specifically, growth in the main business sectors of wired and wireless services has stagnated. In the wireless business segment, revenue increased by only 1% compared to the previous year, and the growth rate for the wired sector was just 1.3%. Revenues from wired telephone services decreased by 10.5% year-on-year due to reduced household demand. Revenues from the media business also showed a minimal increase of 0.1% compared to the previous year, due to stagnation in the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) sector.
In this context, the significant improvement in KT's profitability in the first quarter is attributed to the large-scale workforce restructuring implemented last year. Starting from October last year, KT carried out employee reallocation and voluntary retirement measures, reducing annual labor cost expenditures by approximately 300 billion won.
Additionally, the impact of the sale revenue and profits from the Lotte East Pole apartment, developed by KT through its affiliate Next Connect PFV (hereinafter NCP), which began moving in the area around Gwangjin Station in Seoul last March, also affected the first-quarter performance. The joint housing development project containing 860 units that is underway on the KT Daejeon Talent Development Center site has recently been fully sold out, and its performance is expected to be reflected in the second quarter.
With the advancement of the AI industry, KT's AI business and KT Cloud business performance are also rapidly growing. Although specific figures were not disclosed, KT's revenues from AI-related business increased by 10.2% year-on-year. KT Cloud's revenue for the first quarter showed a 42.2% increase compared to the previous year. In the case of KT Cloud's data center (DC) business, there was also an increase in demand for colocation services from global clients and revenue from AI cloud services based on graphics processing unit (GPU) infrastructure targeting corporations.
On this day, KT disclosed the status of its implementation of the 'corporate value enhancement plan.' KT announced its corporate value enhancement plan (Value Up Program) in November last year, setting a goal of 9-10% return on equity (ROE) for consolidated retained earnings by 2028, and presented key measures including ▲ structural transformations in AICT ▲ efficiency improvements in non-core assets ▲ rationalization of low-profit businesses ▲ and additional share buybacks and cancellations. KT has decided to repurchase and cancel its own shares worth 250 billion won and has been proceeding with share buybacks since February. On the 30th of last month, the company paid a dividend of 600 won per share, a 20% increase compared to the same period last year. To improve profitability and optimize its non-core business portfolio, KT sold INITECH and PlayD this year.
Jang Min, KT's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), noted, "KT will secure new growth engines centered on the B2B (business-to-business) AX (AI transformation) sector this year, accelerating its leap toward becoming an AICT corporation," and added, "We will diligently implement the corporate value enhancement plan to elevate KT's value to the next level."