China Unicom H1 profit rises 145 percent, beats estimate

By Sijia Jiang

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Unicom Hong Kong on Wednesday reported a 145 percent rise in first-half net profit, helped by mobile revenue growth and cost control.

Net profit for the January-June period stood at 5.9 billion yuan ($854.43 million), the company said in a statement. That implies a net profit of 2.89 billion yuan in the second quarter. Six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a net profit of 2.69 billion yuan for the quarter.

Service revenue in the first half grew 8.3 percent to 134.4 billion yuan.

The telecommunications carrier said 4G customers rose by 28.23 million in the six-month period to 203 million. Average revenue per user of mobile customers was 47.9 yuan, in line with full-year 2017.

Chairman Wang Xiaochu said a mixed ownership reform in the company helps it capture new opportunities, but also warned that "continued downward pressure" in its traditional businesses, including an industry-wide cancellation of mobile data roaming charges from July and cyclical factors pose challenges in the second half.

($1 = 6.9052 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Sijia Jiang)