Welcome everyone to Far EasTone's 2023 third quarter earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. After the presentation, there will be a Q&A session. Please follow the instructions given at that time if you would like to ask questions. And for your information, a webcast replay will be available within an hour after the conference ends. Please visit www.fareastone.com.tw under the Investor Relations section. Now, I would like to introduce Mr. Gary Lai, the IR officer. Gary, please begin.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you again to attend Far EasTone third quarter result conference call. As usual, our President, Chee, and CFO, Sharon, both join the call with us. Just a quick reminder before Chee's presentation, please pay attention to the first page safe harbor statement. Let me pass to Chee. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Gary, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the third quarter IR call. So we had a good quarter, so we beat guidance across all KPIs with solid YoY growth. So you can tell that our total revenue actually grew 4.8%, and then our achieve rate is over 100. And also our EBITDA is looking at 5% YoY growth, and our net income remains a double digits YoY growth. If you combine the first quarter through third quarter together, we come to the 2.56 EPS, and this actually matched our full year EPS for 2020. So far, as you see, the guidance on the right-hand side and our achieve rate is all above 100. Okay, next.
Okay, a little bit more information. If you look at the total revenue and then the quarterly chart, this 4.8 YoY compared to the third quarter last year, and then it's at 4.8%. Overall, we are really happy to see this overall total revenue continues to grow steadily. And this has been the 12th consecutive quarters that we see the positive YoY growth for the quarterly report. And then on the EBITDA side, it's a 5% YoY increase, and also this is a new record high for us since 2019. The third quarter EBITDA came to TWD 8.08 billion.
This 5.0% YoY EBITDA growth is attributed to higher gross margin from both the core business and our new economy services. Okay. For the net income, that is TWD 2.83 billion for the third quarter, and the EPS is TWD 0.87, and that is also a six-year high for the same period. Okay? So and as we understand, this double digits 16.7 double digits growth continues to lead our industry for nine quarters in a row now. Some more information about our financial metrics. Our net debt has come down from TWD 54.2 billion same quarter last year to TWD 49.11 billion. And our net debt to EBITDA multiple has come down to 1.54. Okay?
Our free cash flow remains very healthy, and it's at TWD 16.21 billion. Our cash-based CapEx still remains on target, and right now it's TWD 5.6 billion, and our guidance remains at TWD 9 billion for this year. Okay. Now look at our mobile core service. So the mobile service revenue continues to grow. If you look at the year-over-year, you know, for the last two years, it was 2.9% and a 1.4% year-over-year growth, respectively, for last two years. But then so far for the three quarters combined, we are looking at a 3.5% year-over-year growth.
So we are very happy with this mobile service revenue kind of coming around, and it has been several quarters now. Okay. And then for our mobile postpaid, our ARPU also we are looking at 3.3% that compared to the two years, you know, YoY, that is also a lot better. Okay. And for our postpaid customers, and we are at about 5.4 million subscribers, and our 5G penetration has now exceeded 38%. And our postpaid churn rate continues to come down and then is now reaching another record low. It is 0.9%, and for the three quarters combined. And our new economy is steadily growing, and also the margin is improving.
So right now, it currently account for about 20% of the total revenue, and the margin improved 7.4%, compared to the same period a year ago. And because we continue to optimize the ICT project portfolio, and also we continue to sustain our steady growth in the consumer digital service part. Okay, enterprise down, still the smart ICT solutions, especially the green ICT solutions, has been our focus for several years now. But then we now have more project delivered with our homegrown solution, which of course, would improve our margin as well. And also the security service is performing well, and then looking at a 10% YoY growth.
The security, we have seen the demand for quite some time, but then in the past, we were, our subsidiary, ICU, was a little bit struggling with, you know, retaining the talents, and because it was very competitive. But then now they have stabilized it, and then so start seeing the YoY healthy improvement. Okay. Our consumer services continue to grow steadily, and in the e-commerce, friDay Video, entertainment area, and also direct carrier billing, and then handset insurance. They continue to grow, help with the revenue and also the profit as well. Okay, some highlights for the enterprise business, and the enterprise business includes our public sector as well. So we have, as I mentioned, we have delivered more smart and green ICT projects with homegrown IoT 5G solutions in the public sector.
Some of the examples included in the EV area, electric motorcycle and electric vehicle charging. So this is not just the charging stations themselves, but the, the, the management system, the service that manage these charging stations, and that is the IoT-based. And also for the power plant, that we have the meter monitoring and also overheat detection system, management systems that we have installed for our national power plant. And then our telemedicine service continues to grow, and we have deployed for additional outlying islands residents as well. And then the extended 5G telemedicine, we now applied for the rural chronic disease care, and such as diabetes, those kind of long-term care. So this is continuing to expand the use or the application of telemedicine technology. Okay.
And for the consumer business highlight, in the third quarter, in particular, because of iPhone 15 launch, so it definitely boosted our 5G upgrade, the bundle sales, and brought in more customers with longer contracts and also at a higher monthly fee. And so over 80% of them signed up for contracts, that is 30 months or longer. And then over 90% have chosen a monthly rate plan that is at TWD 999 or higher. Okay? For the FET's customer loyalty application, that is the Mobile Circle, the app, it continues to score the highest for membership satisfaction in the market.
And the number of transactions that it was able to divert has grown 352% YoY, and this is helping our other FET digital services sales, such as e-commerce and our video services, OTT video services as well. Okay. And then for our friDay Video, in terms of number of members, has grown 20% year-over-year in the third quarter. And then because it has very popular and exclusive Korean drama, and our team is very good at picking the right content for the right audience, which shows in terms of membership growth there. And then also our network security feature, we call the Guardian Network Service, has gained 550,000 subscribers since beginning of the year and since its launch.
Okay, and for friDay Shopping, it has beat the market in terms of the revenue growth, and also it leads AI adoption in the e-commerce industry. It has onboarded more than 1,000 e-stores for small business, small and medium business, and that is powered by generative AI. And also it launched the fully AI-driven app for personalized shopping experience. Okay. And we also have got some recognition, especially in the sustainability. And then, so we just, we were just awarded National Sustainable Development Award. This was hot off the press. And then for the TCSA, we were number one winner for the number of awards for one single company, and this is for the Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Award.
Okay, and then there are some more, quite a bit of award in this area, and I just won't go over it one by one for you. Okay, next slide. Okay. Now talk about our merger, as you probably have seen in the news, right? So we continue to pass each of the hurdles, and we are now in the last sprint to the final effective date, which is set for December fifteenth. That, that is the official FET-APT merger effective date. Okay. So for the fourth quarter focus, unlike before, and because we have submitted for to our stock exchange office that we for listing our new shares of stocks because of the merger.
So we have entered the silent period, so we will not be able to share with you our fourth quarter financial forecast or guidance. But then, in terms of focus, of course, it's going to be finish the last sprint to the merger effective date, and then also we will finish the year strong. And please expect, it's coming soon, the new FET. Okay, that should be all the presentation I have, and we will now welcome your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will begin the Q&A session. If you have any questions for any of today's speakers, please press star key and number one on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. After your name is announced, please ask your questions. If you find that your questions have been answered before it is your turn to speak, please press star key and number two to cancel your question. Now, please press star key and number one on your keypad if you would like to ask questions. Thank you. The first one to ask question, Neale Anderson from HSBC. Go ahead, please.
Hi there. Good afternoon.
Hi.
Can I ask about your new economy business, please? So congratulations on getting the margin up, 7.4%. So can you provide more detail on that? I remember at the start of the year, you said that the cloud resale market was very competitive, and you were worried about that. So is pulling back from that area the main reason? And it also sounded from your comments, like the enterprise area is a little bit more volatile with concerns over staff costs, et cetera. So is that the correct understanding, and, you know, what, what's the outlook for the different businesses there? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Neale. And you remembered well. I did say, I think it was last year, we were talking about we are looking at de-risk, right? So some of the ICT projects. We actually didn't pull back per se, from our cloud service. It still continues to grow quite well, but then there is also more managed service in the cloud service area that our subsidiary has been providing, so that helped. But then still, with the other ICT projects, as I mentioned, we have more deployed with our own homegrown solutions, so that helped improve the margin as well.
Got it. Okay. And any sort of forward-looking concerns about staff costs, wage inflation? I guess is a pretty hotly contested area, so people with the right skills are probably in quite high demand.
Right. So, if you were asking about the inflation, so we do see the utility price back gone up, right? But then other than that, and then also the interest rate, but we manage it very well. So that's part of the reason, you know, our non-operating income or the interest expense was less than we initially forecast. So I think we still manage it so far so good because if it, this is like looking at employees, like, salary increase, we have been doing that every year anyway. So it's really not changing much if, if that's what you're referring to.
Got it. Yeah, that, that's fine. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.
Sure. Thank you, Neil.
Please press star key and number one if you would like, if you would like to ask questions. Thank you. If you would like to ask questions, please press star key and number one on your telephone keypad. Thank you.
I must have done a decent job. There's no question for me?
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, we are now in Q&A session. If you would like to ask questions, please press star key and number one. Thank you. Please press star key and number one if you would like to ask questions. Thank you. Next one to ask question, Sara Wa ng from UBS.
Hey, Sarah.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. So just one quick follow-up on the previous topic. So, basically the new economy or ICT revenue represents higher share of our revenue, and I believe the trend will be the same going forward. So, when we look at other telcos in the region, when they expand their enterprise business, their revenue or margin actually will see more volatility across quarters, compared to like previously, mostly the business is consumer faced. So, just wondering, how shall we think about the seasonality or like volatility of our revenue and margin going forward? Thank you.
...Okay. Thank you, Sara. That is a very good question. We do see some seasonality. For example, like last year, we had won a big project from the government that was like TWD 1 billion, so which increased our base for YoY, right? Because you don't get those kind of size of a project every year. We do see something like that, but then, of course, we welcome them. But then, I think, one other thing is because we have both public sector, and then those projects are not as much recurring, right? So it adds to the seasonality. But then for the, or, or the randomness. And then, for the enterprise accounts, that's what I have emphasized with my team, that we need to go deeper with these enterprise.
Especially now, because of the digital transformation trend and also the efforts, or the demand on the ESG, and that has been our kind of focus, where we have our solutions, right, designed and then deployed for them. So because the demand is continuous, so that actually helps stabilize the demand that we are looking at. And I-
Yeah.
I cannot say anything I expect, let me just finish that. Yes. I hope that helps.
Yeah. Thank you.
Sure.
If you would like to ask questions, please press star key and one. Thank you. We are in Q&A session. If you would like to ask questions, please press star key and one. Thank you.
Hmm. That's all right. If no more questions, maybe we'll see some of them in Singapore, right? Two weeks later. We still have a chance to catch up.
There are currently no questions at this point. I'll pass the line back to Gary. Gary, please proceed.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your understanding this silent period for us. See you soon, and I think everything will go well. We will update to you sooner.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Goodbye.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in Far EasTone's conference. There will be a webcast replay within an hour. Please visit www.fareastone.com.tw under the Investor Relations section. You may now disconnect. Thank you again, and goodbye.