China Unicom Hong Kong : 2018 Annual Results Announcement

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(Incorporated in Hong Kong with limited liability)

(Stock Code: 0762)

2018 ANNUAL RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT AND CLOSURE OF REGISTER OF MEMBERS

Highlights:

• • Profit continued to grow remarkably, driven by deepened execution of the Strategy of Focus, Innovation and Cooperation

• • Mixed-ownership reform started delivering notable enhancement in growth momentum, quality and efficiency

• • Innovative business model posted remarkable results, sustaining fast and effective mobile service growth

• • Innovative businesses registered robust growth, gradually becoming a key revenue driver

• • Accelerate "Five New" establishment to drive high-quality sustainable growth

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Dear Shareholders,

2018 was China Unicom's first full year of the implementation of mixed-ownership reform. It was also an important year during which the Company achieved outstanding results in development and reform with noticeable improvement in corporate appearance. Over the past year, the Company engaged in active implementation of its new development philosophy, as it deepened the execution of the Strategy of Focus, Innovation and Cooperation. It proactively advanced Internet-oriented operations, while comprehensively deepening mixed-ownership reform. There were notable enhancements in the momentum, quality and efficiency of our development and in our corporate vibrancy, while the building of China Unicom's "Five New" - New Governance, New DNA, New Operation, New Energy and New Ecology, marched an important step forward.

OVERALL RESULTS

The Company continued to report remarkable growth in operating results for 2018. Service revenue for the full year amounted to RMB263.7 billion, representing a 5.9% year-on-year growth which outperformed the industry average growth rate of 3.0%. EBITDA1 amounted to RMB84.9 billion, up by 4.3%, year-on-year. Profit before income tax2 reached RMB13.1 billion and profit attributable to equity shareholders of the Company increased by 458%, year-on-year, to RMB10.2 billion, extending the "V-shaped" rebound in profit.

The Company persisted in enhancing network efficiency through precise investment, sharing and cooperation. While maintaining the edges of our network, the full year capital expenditure continued to be under effective control at RMB44.9 billion. Thanks to the sustainable growth in revenue and sound control in expenditure, the Company registered the record high again in free cash flow in the amount of RMB47.5 billion. Our liabilities-to-assets ratio went further down to 41.8% from 46.8% at the end of last year, reflecting an increasingly solid financial position and capital strength.

The Company attached great importance to shareholders' returns. With due regards to the Company's profitability, debt and cash flow level, capital requirements for its future development etc., the Board of Directors recommended the payment of a final dividend of RMB0.134 per share. Going forward, the Company will continue to strive to enhance its profitability and shareholders' returns.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Deepened Internet-oriented innovative operation underpinned highly effective mobile service growth

In 2018, the Company pressed forward the innovative operation of its mobile service in response to the pressure from market competition and "Speed Upgrade and Tariff Reduction" policy, achieving the effective growth for the mobile service with reduced channel commission and handset subsidy. Mobile service revenue for the full year reached RMB165.1 billion, representing a year-on-year growth of 5.5% that exceeded the industry average of 0.6%. Mobile billing subscribers saw a net addition of 30.87 million, representing a year-on-year growth of 51.8% and taking the total number of mobile billing subscribers to 320 million.

During the year, the Company chose not to simply match the competition of low-price "unlimited data" products introduced by peers, nevertheless persistently promoted Internet-oriented operational transformation and deepened 2I2C business collaboration with Internet companies. Leveraging market segmentation, differentiated products were launched to address the unanswered demand of heavy data users. The Company deepened the unified online and offline ("O2O") total touchpoint operation and turned outlet sales to on-street sales, enhancing customer flow between online and offline operations. A strong emphasis was placed on light touchpoints such as online channels and cross-industry alliances to enhance the efficiency ofdevelopment. Target marketing and customer retention were enhanced with the use of Big Data, resulting in better customer acquisition and retention as well as value enhancement. For 2018, the Company's 4G subscriber base saw a net addition of 45.05 million to a total of 220 million. Our 4G subscriber market share was up by 1.3 percentage points, year-on-year. The proportion of 4G subscribers as a percentage of total mobile billing subscriber increased by 8 percentage points, year-on-year, to 70%.

In implementation of "Speed Upgrade and Tariff Reduction" policy, the Company optimised its tariff packages and made strong efforts to promote heavy data packages during the year to facilitate smooth transition for customers. The Company strived to achieve win-win by advancing data traffic operation and leveraging price elasticity of mobile data. In 2018, the unit pricing for the Company's mobile handset data decreased substantially, while the mobile data volume consumption grew by 1.8 times. The monthly average DOU per mobile handset subscriber reached approximately 6 GB, while handset Internet access revenue grew by 13.7%, year-on-year, to RMB104.8 billion.

Continuous improvement in broadband service while actively countering intense competition

In 2018, the Company actively responded to the challenge of market competition in broadband service by resorting to "Big Video, Big Integration and Big Bandwidth". Leveraging rich resources afforded by our strategic investors, we strengthened our content portfolio with quality video and stepped up with the deployment of smart home services to boost subscriber stickiness and product competitiveness. The promotion of bundled products through all channels was also strengthened, with a special emphasis on increasing penetration and driving mutual development across products. We also promoted high-bandwidth products and increased private capital cooperation to further enhance network coverage and quality. The implementation of comprehensive grid-based contract-out reform was accelerated to enhance the vibrancy of frontline staff and strengthen our sales and servicing ability. The new integrated sales model targeting government and enterprise customers based on "Cloud + Smart Networks + Smart Applications" drove rapid development of the broadband and Internet private line access services.

For 2018, the Company's fixed-line broadband subscriber saw a net addition of 4.34 million, representing a 234% year-on-year growth, to over 80 million in total. Video service subscribers accounted for 44% of fixed-line broadband subscribers, up by approximately 9 percentage points, year-on-year. Fixed-line broadband access revenue amounted to RMB42.3 billion, indicating a considerable reduction of the rate of decline year-on-year and basically achieving a steady development.

Industry Internet business continued to mark new breakthrough promoting healthy growth of fixed-line services

In 2018, led by the model of "Cloud + Smart Networks + Smart Applications", the Company stepped up market expansion and drove scale development in key innovative businesses, such as Cloud Computing, Big Data and the Internet of Things ("IoT"), accruing energy for highly efficient and sustainable development in the future. Focusing on key sectors such as government affairs, education, medical and healthcare, finance, transportation and tourism, and actively bringing into play the complementary resources and business synergies afforded by strategic investors with in-depth business and capital cooperation, the Company fostered differentiated advantages. The Company strengthened talent development and acquisition. It created system and mechanism segregated from the traditional business and implemented the sharing of incremental return, with a view to stimulating instinctive innovative vibrancy and momentum. The building of the innovative platform for government and enterprise customers was expedited. The end-to-end core capabilities such as innovative product R&D for government and enterprise market, centralised processing and operation support were developed to facilitate the growth of innovative business in the future with economy of scale.

In 2018, the Company's innovative business was gradually becoming the key driver of revenue growth. For the full year, the industry Internet business reported revenue of RMB23.0 billion, representing a 45% growth, year-on-year, and increasing to 8.7% as a percentage of service revenue. ICT revenue reached RMB5.6 billion, up by 69%, year-on-year. IDC and Cloud Computing revenue reached RMB14.7 billion, up by 33%, year-on-year. IoT revenue reached RMB2.1 billion and Big Data revenue reached RMB0.6 billion, representing year-on-year growth of 48% and 284%, respectively. Benefitting from notable improvements in the broadband service and growth in innovative services, the Company's fixed-line service revenue amounted to RMB96.3 billion, up by 6.0% year-on-year.

NETWORK CONSTRUCTION

Precise and efficient construction of premium networks to foster network competitiveness

In 2018, the Company persisted in return-oriented precise investment, focusing on key services and regions and taking advantage of Big Data, with a view to swiftly responding to market demands while assuring effective and fast business growth.

We continued to perfect our 4G network coverage and quality, in order to provide a solid foundation for "4G+5G" premium network. In connection with our broadband network, we emphasised in raising network resources utilisation. In the northern regions, the Company strived to maintain our leadership in coverage, quality and experience, while in the southern regions, it focused on enhancing network capabilities through private capital cooperation in high-value regions. We were also eyeing opportunities presented by cloud-network integration and corporate informatisation, as we endeavoured to build "premium networks for governments and enterprises customers" and enhance coverage of commercial buildings in order to stay ahead in cloud-network synergy.

In 2018, the Company added 0.14 million 4G base stations to bring the total number of 4G base stations to 0.99 million. FTTH ports accounted for 82% of the total fixed-line broadband ports, while the percentage of FTTH subscribers to total broadband subscribers reached 82%. There had been ongoing improvement of network quality and customer perception in our focused regions and continued growth in Net Promoter Score (NPS) for both mobile network and fixed-line broadband. We also maintained industry-leading average uplink and downlink speeds in 4G networks and the industry-best indicators in network latency.

Proactive deployment of 5G scale trial to advance industry ecosystem

In December 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology consented to China Unicom to use the frequency band of 3500-3600MHz nationwide for launching the trial of 5G mobile communications system.

The Company is actively promoting 5G network and industry applications trial in key cities and plans to expand the scale of trial as appropriate based on the testing results and maturity of equipment. It will track closely the progress of the industry and strengthen the synergetic development of terminal, network and business, riding on the benefits of the value chain advantages of 3.5GHz. It concurrently promotes the maturity of the value chain of Non-Standalone (NSA)/Standalone (SA). The Company will closely monitor the schedule of 5G licensing and accelerate the upgrade of the auxiliary facilities for 5G. The Company is taking an active approach in researching and driving network co-building and co-sharing of 5G with various cooperation modes to lower the network construction cost. Upholding the principle of open cooperation and win-win development, the Company joins hands with the value chain to enjoy the new bonus to be brought by 5G.

Looking ahead, the Company will maintain precise investment with due regards to the technological advancement, regulatory policies, market demand and competitive landscape, etc.

MIXED-OWNERSHIP REFORM

In 2018, the Company fully upheld the principles to "enhance governance, strengthen incentives, protrude core businesses and raise efficiency" and deepened the implementation of mixed-ownership reform. Improvements were made to our corporate governance structure. We carried out in-depth cooperation, introduced innovative business models and drove synergetic development with strategic investors. Unicom A Share Company employee share incentive scheme was implemented. Mechanisms and systems were further transformed and the market-oriented incentive mechanism was further optimised. Mixed-ownership reform started delivering bonus.