PCCW Ltd, Hong Kong's largest phone company, has increased second-half profit 50 percent after raising fixed-line prices and stemming losses at its pay-television and mobile-phone units.
Net income rose to HK$681 million (US$87 million) from HK$454 million a year earlier. Bloomberg News derived second-half earnings from full-year figures reported by the phone carrier yesterday.
Sales gained to HK$12.1 billion from HK$11.6 billion. Spokesman Louis Ting couldn't immediately confirm the calculations.
PCCW, controlled by billionaire Chairman Richard Li, raised prices of fixed-line services as Hong Kong's economy expanded for the fifth straight year in 2007.
The former monopoly has added mobile-phone and pay-TV customers as it looks to combine call and media services to boost earnings this year.
"PCCW's core fixed-line and broadband businesses will do quite well as Hong Kong's economy remains robust," Kelvin Ho, a Nomura International Ltd analyst, said before the announcement. "Pay-TV and wireless losses are narrowing."
The firm raised fixed-line phone prices for corporate clients by seven percent in May, and cut discounts and promotions for residential customers, Ho said, as competition from groups such as Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd and City Telecom (HK) Ltd in Hong Kong eased.
The phone carrier's full-year profit rose 20 percent last year to HK$1.5 billion, PCCW said in a statement. Sales fell seven percent to HK$23.7 billion.