China Mobile's profit up 0.2% in 2016

HONG KONG - The net profit for China Mobile Ltd in 2016 slightly rose 0.2 percent from a year ago to 108.7 billion yuan ($15.8 billion), while revenue grew 6 percent to 708.4 billion yuan on wireless data traffic, China Mobile said on Thursday.

The company released its 2016 annual report. A final dividend of HK$1.243 per share is proposed.

The wireless data traffic revenue increased 43.5 percent from a year earlier, becoming the biggest revenue source in 2016, surpassing the combined revenue of voice, Short Message Service and Multimedia Messaging Service, according to the report.

In 4G area, the company had a net addition of 223 million 4G customers, bringing the total number of 4G customers to 535 million, while the 4G penetration rate of its mobile customers has reached 63 percent, the report said.

Shang Bing, chairman of the company, said this year marks the 20th anniversary of the China Mobile's public listing. The company's market capitalization expanded by 13.5 times in the past two decades, and now is the world's largest telecommunications operator, he said.

Looking ahead, China's ambition to become a "Cyberpower" and the implementation of the "Internet +" initiative will boost data usage and create new growth opportunities for the industry, Shang said.

Shares of China Mobile fell 3.4 percent to close at HK$87.25 on Thursday.