KT Corp., South Korea’s telecom giant, reported a remarkable 36% year-on-year increase in first-quarter operating profit to 688.8 billion won ($513.3 million) as workforce restructuring initiatives delivered substantial cost savings. The company’s revenue grew modestly at 2.9% to 6.85 trillion won ($5.1 billion), while net income jumped 44.2% to 566.8 billion won ($422.4 million).
The impressive profit growth stems largely from last year’s workforce reorganization, which analysts estimate reduced annual labor costs by approximately 300 billion won. KT’s mobile business showed steady expansion with 5G subscribers now representing 78.9% of total device users. Meanwhile, high-speed internet revenue increased 1.3% year-on-year as more customers adopted premium giga-internet services and value-added offerings.
KT Cloud emerged as a standout performer with 42.2% revenue growth across both cloud and data center operations, including increased demand for AI cloud services utilizing GPU infrastructure. The company also benefited from real estate development through its subsidiary, with sales revenue from the Lotte East Pole apartment complex contributing to first-quarter results. Looking ahead, KT plans to accelerate its transformation into an AICT (AI + Information and Communications Technology) company through strategic partnership with Microsoft, developing Korea-specific AI models and securing public cloud capabilities. As part of its corporate value enhancement plan, KT increased its quarterly dividend by 20% to 600 won per share and continues its 250 billion won share buyback program initiated in February.
