Good evening and welcome to the HKT 2024 Interim Results Webcast. Presenting today, we have Ms. Susanna Hui, Group Managing Director, and Mr. Patrick Poon, Chief Financial Officer. We'll start with a presentation, followed by Q&A, and with that, let me turn it to Susanna.
Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to join our HKT result announcement presentation. So let me just start by giving you an overview of our performance in the first half. So you can see here that HKT has consistently demonstrated resilience amidst the challenging economic conditions, which are marked by subdued retail spending and corporate investment in Hong Kong, given the prolonged elevated interest rates.
Look at our slide here. We have successfully delivered 3% growth in terms of service revenue, driven mainly by our enterprise revenue up by 7% year-over-year growth, as well as 5% growth in our mobile service revenue, benefiting from the roaming recovery. With continuous efficiency optimization, EBITDA also increased by 3% to 791 million. AFF, accordingly, also improved by 2.7% to 320 million. As a result, first-half distribution, 100% of the AFF is being distributed, and the dividend per SSU will be 32.92 HK cents.
The next slide here shows our unique proposition and advantage of our network, mainly being the converged fixed and mobile network together. So if you look at the fixed network, in the first half, HKT launched 50G PON service in March, and this actually represents our next phase upgrade to the existing symmetric 2.5G, 5G, 10G XGS- PON fiber services. All of these are now available to 80% of the buildings and households in Hong Kong.
Complementing with our Wi-Fi 7, this ultra-high-speed, low-latency fiber-based technology is designed to support next-generation applications such as cloud gaming, VR applications, online trading, and so on. Consumers can, of course, access these services anywhere in their home through tailored solutions of fiber to the home, fiber to the room, and also Wi-Fi as well as wireless broadband on our 5G. Again, this reflects the unique proposition of our converged fixed mobile network.
The next slide shows our mobile network. So what we have done in the first half of 2024 is to continue to enhance our network coverage to improve capacity and speed. The highlight is that we have added 68 new sites in the first six months, bringing our total mobile sites to more than 4,000, which represents the highest number of mobile sites amongst the Hong Kong operators.
We have also leveraged our extensive spectrum portfolio, particularly using the dual C- band and also the 28GHz mmWave frequencies to further enhance targeted areas, both indoor and outdoor. For example, the Hong Kong airport, the Central Harbourfront for the mega concerts, as well as the new Kai Tak Sports Park.
We have also seen the evolution of our network from the original 5G on an NSA non-standalone basis to SA standalone basis enabled since 2023, as evident from the fact that we can use network slicing in some of the events in October last year. Furthermore, with the rollout of our 28GHz spectrum onto our network, we are also witnessing the evolution of our network to 5.5G, which is the 5.5G, which is the 5G advanced standards.
Again, this would enable 10 times speed faster than the original 5G and also low latency, which means that certain applications in terms of precision location positioning for geo-based coupon promotion push, as well as specific equipment tracking and so on, can be done very, very accurately.
So a lot of these innovative use cases have been implemented in both private and public sectors, and feedback and impact has been really positive. That's why you can see later on we will tell you our commercial enterprise revenue has been growing with strong momentum. Turning to our mobile business, we continue to witness growth in our mobile customer base, which represented a net addition of 50,000 subscribers during the period.
We have also achieved a 2% growth in terms of AARPU from 189 to 192. Furthermore, we have focused our efforts in terms of tapping potential ARPU uplift by offering different VAS and also premium quad- play services on our mobile base. If you look at our premium 1O1O customer base, you can see that there is continuous growth in terms of the base.
This particular high ARPU segment expanded by 5% during the first half, and there is also improved churn from 0.8% to 0.6%. Next slide shows the recovery in the roaming revenue, which is, of course, very important in terms of contributing to the growth of our mobile revenue and also improving the margin overall.
We see that in the first half, basically the total roaming revenue grew by 55% year-on-year, and as compared to the pre-COVID period, it represents 98% recovery. And in particular, if we look at the outbound revenue, outbound roaming revenue, it represents 104% of the pre-COVID level. Obviously, the consumer outbound in terms of growth is even more significant, which represents more than 127% of the pre-COVID. So right now, the roaming revenue already represents 11% of our total service revenue.
We do anticipate that with continuous steady recovery in terms of inbound, as well as the corporate segment of the outbound activities in the second half, we expect that there will be full-year growth for the roaming revenue as well. Now, looking at the 5G adoption, during the period, we saw the 5G subscribers increasing to 1.57 million, representing a penetration of 46% of our total customer base and a 55% penetration of our highest spending 1O1O and CSL segment.
With the new AI-featured phones coming into the market, increasing affordability of the 5G handsets, and the growing bandwidth requirements of the various applications in the market, we have strong confidence that this upgrade cycle will continue. It is also worth pointing out to you that the average ARPU for the 5G now represents more than 40% uplift as compared to the 4G segment.
Now, turning to our broadband revenue, I think in the first half we saw broadband revenue growth as well. And if we look at the consumer broadband sub-base, it was very stable, adding 4,000 for the first six months. But the growth in terms of revenue was characterized by the continued upgrades to fiber to the home and accelerating uptake of the 2.5G services, and also the success of our cross-selling efforts of our home broadband services into our mobile base.
Now, if you look at the slide here, fiber to the home now reached 1.03 million subscriptions at June end, and it now represents 70% of our broadband users. More than 50% of this 42,000 net addition were from our mobile customers. It is also worth noting, if you look at the right-hand bottom of the slide, that our customers are rapidly upgrading to 2.5G services as well.
This is important because it does lead to an ARPU uplift of 80 per subscriber. You can see here that subscription already reached nine times in the first half as compared to the same period last year. Now, turning to our pay-TV operations, the highlight of the first half is, of course, our exclusive coverage and broadcasting of the Euro, covering all 51 matches. I'm sure that a lot of you would have stayed up till early in the morning to watch the finals.
We successfully, for this season, monetized the event across multiple fronts, including direct-to-consumer, commercial, and advertising. Firstly, direct-to-consumer, we focus on cross-selling via the sports event passes across our multiple customer base, including not just the Now TV customer base, but also the broadband, the mobile, and The Club customer base.
For the commercial subscription, namely the restaurants and the bars and the hotels and so on, for this season, we did see a strong growth of 50% to over 380 in their efforts in terms of stimulating the nightlife spending. Also, for this season, we have introduced a lot of innovations to drive excitement around this content, which includes using our group artists from MakerVille for real-time game analysis, as well as innovative prizes using our CSL AR Lens application.
And all these add to the sponsorship revenue and advertising revenue growth. And we look forward to continue with the coming Premier League as well. Now, another highlight that I would like to share with you is that we have refreshed and revamped our Now OTT service as well as the out-of-the-box solution.
The key highlights on the features are basically instant activation, which can offer convenience and allow customers to enjoy basically without installation required. Early success can be seen on the Euro event passes, which represented the growth as compared to the previous season. You can also see that the Now OTT customers are picking up very strongly by 13% year-on-year.
Now, turning to our commercial team, the enterprise business. In the beginning, we already said that the enterprise revenue grew by 7%, which is a very remarkable growth, despite the fact that in the market, we are still facing a lot of challenges with weak conditions for the SMEs, soft retail, and F&B spending with a northward shift of the consumption pattern, relocation and downsizing of the MNCs in Hong Kong as well.
But through the first half, our enterprise team is able to grow the pipeline of secure contract wins. Right now, at the end of the first half in June, we already have a pipeline of 2.5 billion worth of contracts, which represented a 27% year-on-year growth. This is important because a lot of these contracts will be implemented in the coming 18 to 24 months.
In a way, we are very confident that full-year enterprise revenue and, in fact, part of the 2025 enterprise revenue will be secured. One important industry vertical, which we have shown very good success, is, of course, the healthcare industry. In fact, for the healthcare industry, we have added two additional large-scale public hospitals onto our portfolio, bringing our total award of hospital contracts to 16 altogether.
We have not just converted them into 5G hospitals, we have also upgraded the entire ICT infrastructure, as well as deployed customized smart tech solutions, including robot systems, real-time location systems, which are all aimed to enhance patient care, optimize operational efficiency, and optimize their resource allocation, and so on. Now, not just the healthcare industry.
For other industries, such as utilities, we have also achieved a number of significant wins in the first half, including deploying a digital twin system for operations monitoring for a utility company in Hong Kong, as well as several contracts involving hotel chains, upgrading their infrastructure and digital transformations as well. And of course, with the current AI and GenAI, ChatGPT, and so on, a lot of tools are available in the market to help the enterprises in Hong Kong to achieve efficiency and help drive business.
So this also represents a very high potential for future growth for our commercial business. Now, turning to the next slide is our China business. We have put out guidance in the past that we are expecting a full-year China revenue of 1 billion. And standing at where we are in terms of the first half result, we saw a very remarkable growth of 51%.
And this is coming from mainly following the mainland companies embarking on regional expansion into the ASEAN countries, especially in view of the geopolitical challenges. And we also saw some Hong Kong customers going into China and also expanding into the ASEAN countries as well. And a lot of these, we are following our customers in terms of giving them cross-border connectivity as well as integrated digital ICT solutions.
So if you look at this slide, you can see that on the left-hand side, we have provided for a Hong Kong entity to go into the GBA area, the Guangzhou area, for a cross-border connectivity and also SI solution in the Guangzhou area. The middle part of the slide represents a lot of the contracts being awarded to us in terms of the hotels in Macau.
And also, there is, notably, we have successfully supported the world's first transcontinental from China to Europe remote telesurgery. All these are a testament to our capability. And that's why we are confident that we will be able to continue to grow the China piece. Now, next slide is our loyalty program, the Club. We continue to expand and enrich the Club digital ecosystem. Member base continues to grow to around 3.94 million.
We have included residents in mainland China and Macau as well. Also, it's worth pointing out and sharing with you that more than 50% of the club members are actually non-HKT customers who are using our e-commerce platform for various lifestyle spending, as well as concert spending and so on.
This provides a very good source of potential new customers to HKT. In the first six months, another highlight that I would like to share with you is that we have established a JV, a collaboration with the members of the Bridge Alliance in terms of allowing our members and the members of their respective telcos to use our club points in the respective countries. This has the benefit of, of course, generating member satisfaction, and also we stimulate more spending, whether it's domestic or overseas, for our customers.
Now, turning to the next slide is our Tap & Go and also merchant solutions. So starting from the right-hand side is the merchant solutions. So we have recently launched the soft point-of-sale app solution to support our SMEs, meaning that they can now use their handset device to receive payment. So it helps them save the rental for the physical point-of-sale terminal. And the other thing is we would be accepting e-CNY into the POS as well in H2. And we have now over 7,000 subscriptions for our merchant payment solutions.
On the consumer side, on the left-hand side for our Tap & Go, because of the spending pattern, a lot of northbound spending, we are following our customers. And basically, we have expanded the merchant coverage in mainland China by collaborating and integrating the UnionPay and WeChat QR code into our app.
Now Tap & Go accounts reach 3.8 million as of June end, and transaction values increased by 6%. Finally, our DrGo telemedicine platform suffices to say that we see members continue to increase by 6% to almost 400,000. Video consultations continue to grow by 12%. Another highlight is that in the first half, we have tapped into the GBA opportunities through the partnership with the GBA Healthcare Group so that we can offer medical insurance and assistance to the GBA residents visiting Hong Kong.
Now, finally, this slide is on the sustainability. We have partnered with a lot of the local merchants to help support the local economy. We have committed 3 billion in terms of sustainability-linked loans. We continue to reduce our absolute electricity and utility consumption.
And we have also continued with the government and other NGOs in terms of helping the community, including the Strive and Rise Programme. And we also got recognized in terms of the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook, as well as having an AA ESG rating from MSCI since 2021. So with that, I would pass to Patrick for the financial sharing.
Thank you, Susanna. Let me first recap our key financial highlights for the first six months this year. Our AFF continued to deliver solid growth of 2.7% year-on-year to 320 million. Our service revenue was up by 3% to 2.01 billion.
This was driven by the accelerated growth in mobile service revenue, lifted by high contribution from roaming, further 5G adoption momentum, and expansion of customer base, and sustained demand for our high-speed broadband and local data services, as well as the continuously robust demand for our smart city and digital transformation solutions widely adopted across diverse industries in Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area.
Including handset sales, total revenue was up by 2% to 2.14 billion, softened by the lower mobile product sales, which dropped by 14% to 126 million. Our total EBITDA for the period was up by 3% to 791 million. Overall EBITDA margin was stable at 37%. Our NPAT grew by another 2% to 255 million.
Looking into the details of our TSS segments, from the chart on the right-hand side, you can see our local TSS service revenue grew by 2% year-on-year, underpinned by the continued growth in local data and broadband revenues. Local data revenue went up by 7%, reflecting the continued demand for our digital ICT and converged solutions that include smart city and digital transformation solutions, incorporating 5G, generative AI, IoT, etc., across diverse industries.
Our broadband service revenue reported another 2% year-on-year growth, driven by the increasing demand for high-speed and reliable fiber-to-the-home services, especially our 2.5G services, which notched the fastest growth as customers upgraded their home broadband service to accommodate their work-from-home, video streaming, and gaming requirements. Pay TV services remained steady, with total in-store base stable at 1.43 million, benefiting from the exclusive broadcast of UEFA Euro 2024.
Overall, local TSS revenue registered a stable revenue growth of 2%. Our international business revenue grew another 7% year-on-year, driven by increased global voice revenue and also growing demand for our software-defined cloud connectivity services. Overall, total TSS revenue increased by 3% to 1.55 billion.
TSS EBITDA grew 2% to 551 million, fueled by further operating efficiency achieved, leading to a stable margin at 36%. Now, let's turn to our mobile business. Also showing on the right-hand side of the chart, mobile service revenue rose 5% to 512 million for the first six months, underpinned by full recovery of our outbound roaming revenue, leading to our total roaming revenue growth by 55% year-on-year.
Secondly, further expansion of our postpaid customer base to 3.43 million, with a net gain of 50,000 for the period, of which 5G adoption momentum continued, with 5G consumer base reaching 1.57 million, representing 46% of total postpaid customer base. Postpaid AARPU also grew 2% to 192 .
Handset sales was softer to 126 million, down by 14% year-on-year due to weak consumer sentiment and limited new handset features. But the new AI feature handset in H2 might add excitement. Total EBITDA for the mobile grew 5% year-on-year to 295 million, with EBITDA margin further improved to 46%. Let's have a closer look at our OPEX.
We achieved an overall 5% OPEX savings, down from 271 million to 257 million, with the OPEX-to-revenue ratio improving from 12.9% to 12.1%, reflecting our continuous focus on efficiency improvement across each business segment through the consolidation of business operations, business process enhancement via suitable adoption of generative AI, and also rationalization of our IT platforms. Apart from OPEX, we are also exercising cost control over our CAPEX spend.
Our total CAPEX for the first six months was lower to 141 million, representing a 3% year-on-year saving. CAPEX-to-revenue ratio further improved from 6.9% to 6.6%, with mobile CAPEX registered a 5% saving to 48 million, reflecting the efficiency gains from capacity upgrades and network maintenance following the completion of our territory-wide 5G coverage.
TSS CAPEX was slightly edged down by 1% to 85 million, with investments largely to support the growing demand for unique integrated fixed mobile solutions for the enterprises. The next is the AFF. We have already covered the EBITDA and CAPEX just now. On CAC and license fee, dropped by 10% to 92 million, mainly due to lower CAC as a result of improved sales channel efficiency.
Fulfillment costs in respect to customized commercial projects and payment for right-of-use assets increased to 37 million and 94 million, respectively. These are to serve and support our growing base of consumer and enterprise customers. Operating AFF before tax and net finance costs grew by 7% year-on-year to 435 million. Payment for finance costs increased to 114 million, caused by a general increase in cost of finance linked to HIBOR.
Lower tax payments together with positive changes in working capital were recorded for the period. Overall, AFF for the first six months grew by 3% year-on-year to 320 million, despite the net finance cost hike, translating into an interim distribution of 32.92 per SSU. For the P&L, we have basically covered from the revenue to the EBITDA lines just now. Next is the depreciation and amortization, which was stable at 344 million.
And explained, our P&L finance costs also went up by 18% to 140 million, caused by the higher market interest rate. Income tax expense was lower to 44 million, with the effective tax rate also improved to 15%, mainly due to an increase in tax benefits enjoyed. As such, our net profit for the first half was up by 2% to 255 million.
Turning to our gearing position, our total gross debt at the end of June this year increased to 5.9 billion. Corresponding gross debt-to-EBITDA ratio increased to 3.42 times. The higher debt level was due to cash spent on inventory and software solutions for various enterprise projects, which will be recovered upon project completion in the second half. The proceeds from the sale of an interest in the passive network business of 870 million, which will be used for debt repayment.
Therefore, in the pro forma, you can see the pro forma gross debt-to-EBITDA ratio will be improved significantly to 2.9 times. As of today, we have over 1.75 billion total liquidity, including undrawn banking facilities of around 1.54 billion and 214 million cash on hand. We continue to carry an investment-grade rating at BBB or Baa2. Lastly, the debt maturity profile.
Our current proportion of fixed to floating-rate debts is approximately 55 to 45, slightly more debts are on fixed interest rate to counteract the adverse impact from the interest rate hike. Our effective interest rate was up to 4.26%. The average debt maturity is now 3.4 years. As shown on the pro forma debt profile, we may use the proceeds from the sale of passive network to repay $500 million US dollar bond due 2025, and also the remaining floating-rate debts due 2026. Therefore, you will see there is no imminent need for refinancing within these two years. This ends my presentation.
Thank you. Okay, let us now open up to questions. The first question refers to broadband. Broadband revenue grew by 2% in the first half. Do you expect the growth rate can return to mid or high single digits?
If I can take this, yes. Thank you for the question. The broadband revenue grew by 2% in the first half. And if you look at our previous slides, we said that the total broadband base has been kept stable. And in fact, in the past few years, it has been plagued by negatively impacted by immigration and so on during the COVID period.
But we are seeing encouraging and accelerating uptake of the 2.5G higher bandwidth, which saw a more than 8% jump in terms of the subscriber base early days, but it does entail a higher output. So we are hopeful that the broadband revenue going forward will have a higher percentage of growth. Thank you.
The next question. It was mentioned in the announcement that the sale of a partial interest in the passive network business was to help fund CAPEX in the future. Can you provide some color on that?
What needs to be invested and the likely CAPEX trend in terms of the fiber network? Thank you for your question. Basically, I think the proceeds from the fiber deal will be used primarily to pay down debts, which will be obviously reducing our burden on the interest expenses. This is important. Of course, with the introduction of the 40% stake shareholder, some of the ongoing CAPEX funding will be shared with the new investor as well.
So in that sense, it will be reducing our CAPEX funding. But in terms of the overall fiber CAPEX for the fixed network, we have already said that we have future-proofed the network to even cover the 50 gig already. And of course, with the new areas extended into GBA or even overseas, there might be opportunities to support further growth. And only when that happened would the CAPEX increase. Thank you.
The next question. As you mentioned, proceeds from the passive network business partial sale will be used to repay debt. Will this impact the AFF distribution? And also, can you just explain what's the pro forma impact on AFF going forward?
Okay, thank you for your question. I think in terms of the proceeds will be used to repay debt, the impact on the AFF is mainly under two lines. One is the interest savings. So obviously, we will be able to see the lower interest expense going forward. The debt payment itself will not affect the calculation of the AFF, will be outside of AFF, so it will not affect the AFF distribution. Pro forma impact will be accretive as the interest will be reduced. The pro rata share of the distribution to the 40% investor will be included in the AFF under the working capital line as well. So that's the current pro forma impact on the AFF.
The next question is, there was a reduction in terms of employees. Is that largely due to cost and demand being reduced because of AI, or does that reflect a big efficiency drive in HKT? And if so, where was that?
There are basically two areas of savings in terms of headcount. One is in the contact center, our teleservices business. That is a major chunk of the reduction in headcount because last year we have a lot of contract staff in terms of call center business, especially in the COVID period and so on. There are a lot of government projects in the call center business. So with the reduction in terms of those contracts, the contract staff are gone, and that contributes to the reduction in headcount.
At the same time, we also saw reduced headcount when we integrated our mobile and broadband consumer business into one single business unit. A lot of back-end support, which are overlapped, actually can be streamlined. And of course, going forward in terms of deploying AI, it will also help drive change the process, which would, of course, reduce headcount as well.
But I think we are very focused on upskilling our employees. So we have, in fact, a stakeholder in terms of AI to provide a lot of tools for our employees in order for them to use the new GenAI and also ChatGPT to help improve the efficiency and so on. So that also would, ongoing basis, help streamline the process.
That was our final question. Thank you for attending today's webcast.