(LEAD) SK Telecom Q2 net income down 67.6 pct after spinoff of chip biz

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SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest wireless carrier, said Tuesday that its second-quarter net profit dropped 67.6 percent from a year earlier due mainly to last year's spinoff of its semiconductor businesses.

The company logged a net profit of 258.1 billion won (US$197.7 million) on a consolidated basis in the three months ending in June, compared with 795.7 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit went up 16.1 percent on-year to 459.6 billion won and sales increased 4 percent to 4.28 trillion won.

The earnings failed to meet market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 317.9 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

The company said its on-year decrease in net profit is mainly blamed on the exclusion of equity gains from SK hynix Inc. in its earnings, following the handover of the chipmaking business to SK Square Co. in November.

SK Square, the mobile carrier's spinoff investment company, was established in November to oversee SK hynix and other non-telecom tech units under SK group, including app market operator ONE store, e-commerce platform 11Street and T Map Mobility.

SK Telecom said sales of its internet service provider (ISP) affiliate SK Broadband rose 3.6 percent to 1.33 trillion won. SK Broadband's operating profit also climbed 21.8 percent to 78.2 billion won.

SK Telecom said sales of its enterprise business, which provides data center and cloud-related services, also grew 13.8 percent to 374 billion won. Monthly active users of its metaverse platform ifland reached 1.63 million as of the end of June.

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