8
China Mobile
(SEHK: 941)
Hong Kong
China Mobile is a company of superlatives. It's the world's largest mobile operator, with some 269.3 million cellular subscribers, operating in a massive mainland market (420 million mobile users as of the end of April). But it's a market where only 29% of the population has a cell phone, so there's lot of room for growth. Last year its revenues were up 26%, to $30 billion. And with operations in all of China's 31 provinces, it is now eyeing expansion abroad. In January, it acquired Hong Kong-based China Resources Peoples Telephone, and in May, rumors emerged that it was angling to purchase emerging-markets mobile player Millicom. On June 10, China Mobile's parent company announced it will pay $164 million to buy a 19.9% stake in Phoenix Satellite Television from Rupert Murdoch. That deal is likely to provide plenty of new content for China Mobile's fast-growing data and content business. Still, there's plenty of uncertainty ahead. Continued deregulation of the mainland market, plus the much anticipated launch of 3G, is likely to spur new competitors, both from its traditional rival mobile operator China Unicom and from companies like China Telecom and China Netcom too.
Company Info |
|
| 2005 Rank | 17 |
| Sales* ($ Millions) | 30,281.9 |
| Sales Growth (over prev. year) |
26 % |
| Profits* ($ Millions) | 6,672.0 |
| Return on Equity | 19.6 % |
| Total Return on Sales (12-mo.) | 45.8 |
| Share Price As of 5/31/06 | 5.04 |
| CURRENT MARKET INFO | SEHK: 941 |
| No. of Employees | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| COMPANY WEB SITE > | |
*Trailing 12 months
Stock price data as of 5/31/06
DATA: Standard & Poor's Compustat
Related Articles
Company Snapshot
China Mobile provides mobile telecommunications services in Mainland China. The company provides various voice-related services, including local calls, domestic long distance calls, international long distance calls, intraprovincial roaming, interprovincial roaming, and international roaming. It also offers value-added voice services, including caller identity display, caller restrictions, call waiting, call forwarding, call holding, voice mail, and conference calls. In addition, the company provides short message services, wireless application protocol, multimedia messaging services, Java applications services, instant messaging, wireless services, and location-based services. China Mobile provides virtual private mobile network services to its corporate customers. It offers its services through proprietary sales outlets and retail outlets. As of Apr. 30, 2006, its total number of subscribers was approximately 265 million. The company was incorporated in 1997 under the name China Telecom (Hong Kong) and changed its name to China Mobile (Hong Kong) in 2000. Further, it changed its name to China Mobile in May, 2006. China Mobile is headquartered in Hong Kong. China Mobile (Hong Kong) is a subsidiary of China Mobile Communications.
Data provided by 
