Welcome, everyone, to Far EasTone's 2024 Q4 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. After the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. Please follow the instructions given at the time if you would like to ask a question. For your information, a webcast replay will be available within an hour after the conference has finished. Please visit www.fareastone.com.tw under the Investor Relations section. And now, I would like to introduce Mr. Gary Lai, IR Officer. Gary, please begin.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Far EasTone Fourth Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. We are pleased to have with us today our President, Chee, and CFO, Sharon, who will provide insights into our operational financial performance and this year's guidance, and also, of course, the strategy initiative. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone to please pay close attention to the Safe Harbor statement in the first page of our presentation. And thank you for joining us today. Let's start with Chee's presentation.
Okay. Thank you, Gary. Good afternoon, everyone. So I'd like to report how we did last year. You probably already see the deck. So basically, we ended the year 2024 with a very strong fourth quarter, and not to mention the whole year was really a new record high in many ways for us. So our last quarter, fourth quarter, we achieved a revenue of TWD 29.17 billion, and that is a 10% year-over-year growth. In particular, if you look at the EBITDA and net income, net income is TWD 3.66 billion, and that is a 28% more than the year before.
Even though this is a merger, as you know, it definitely helped us with the revenue, the top line, but then when it comes to the net income and EBITDA growth, we actually have to overcome quite a bit of challenges that came with the merger to actually realize the synergy as we initially kind of projected for the analysts when we were asked in our announcement that we will be looking at about TWD 3 billion EBITDA earnings accretion from year number one. So here we go, and we actually look at EBITDA, it is TWD 4.2 billion, better than the year before. So that is very close and actually better than our own projection two years ago or almost three years ago now. Okay. So for the full year, we achieved TWD 104 billion. I was trying to round it up to TWD 105. We fell a little bit short.
Then for the EBITDA, it's TWD 36.31 billion, and net income has reached TWD 12.84 billion. Then also the EPS, it is TWD 3.56. Then as opposed to our guidance that we announced at the early last year, that was TWD 3.11. So it is a 115% achievement rate. Okay. This is also a six-year high. I remember when I first joined, we were kind of at the bottom, and then we worked our way up. Then so glad to report this earning result and share it with all of you. Okay. Some highlights here for the fourth quarter. When it comes to revenue, it is, of course, partly due to the merger synergy, but then also we continue to have this steady 5G upgrade, and it is still going strong and steadily.
Also, our ICT revenue contribution—that really in the fourth quarter—we pulled in quite a bit of a project, and it was all finished nicely. This is actually the 17th consecutive quarters that we have seen the positive YOY growth. On the EBITDA side, this EBITDA TWD 9.38 billion is a new record high in Far EasTone history. This 15.1% YOY EBITDA growth was driven by merger synergies, and also we have getting better margins from core telecom and also new economy business. This is also, yeah, a record high. For the net income, we actually got an EPS of TWD 1.01. It is a record high for the same period. We have made quite a bit of records for last year. This YOY growth rate was 28.8%. It is a strong double-digit growth for three consecutive quarters now. Okay. All right.
And then if you look at our other financial metrics, for the net debt and net debt ratio, net debt to EBITDA, we have improved it quite a bit. So from 1.74x to 1.23x for the fourth quarter. And then in terms of the free cash flow, it is also very healthy, very good. And then the CapEx was TWD 7.09 billion, and it is 13% lower than our guidance. And then some of that is deferred payments, and then also acceptance of the equipment and some of that. So there's also some cost synergy, right, that has been realized. So overall, our cash-based CapEx was a little bit under than what our original forecast. Okay. As I have mentioned, and I won't repeat here, you can see that we have quite a bit of a record high for Far EasTone besides this revenue and EBITDA.
The net income is actually at an 18-year high. And then for the EPS, that's an 11-year high. Excuse me. And then a little bit into this telecom core. So we continue to see the growth that's driven by 5G and also the merger synergies. We continue to migrate APT customers with good uplift. That helps. And then also the steady 5G penetration. And we actually maintain number one for the postpaid 5G penetration. And if you look at our ARPU, even though because of the merger, because of the dilution on the number of shares and the number of customer base, that has increased by TWD 2 million or so. But then if you look at the postpaid ARPU, and then it has come down from 2023, but then the trend has already been going up, and we maintain the leading position among the three. Okay.
We also maintain the low churn rate, which helps stabilize the market. Even though we still see quite a bit of in and outs, but in terms of net porting, we still perform very well. Okay. And for the new economy, before, we have always been tracking the new economy accounts for how many % of the total until last year because our base, of course, was increased about TWD 10 billion because of Asia Pacific. But then on the other hand, they didn't really have the new economy portion. So if you look at just the percentage, it went down a little bit. But then if we look at, especially we continue to improve the margin. If we look at the margin absolute value, so from 2022 to 2023, that was an 8% year-over-year growth. But then for last year, it is a 19% year-over-year growth over 2023.
So that was quite a significant improvement for us. Okay. And this is due to we've been very selective in terms of the large or huge projects that we select for the ICT. If we only went for the revenue top growth, and then that would sometimes not take care of the margin as much. So we have been trying to do the good balance, and then definitely improving the margin becomes our higher priority as our growth in the ICT area has remained really strong. Okay. So overall, as you may recall, our new economy has two parts. One is the consumer-facing. That's a digital services base. And then we have also enterprise phase, and that is mainly driven by the smart ICT business. And then to begin with, I remember it's a half and half kind of a pie.
Now we are enterprise because a lot of these large ICT projects. They do come with a large amount, especially if it's this government project. So in terms of revenue, it accounts for 57% of the new economy revenue now. For the consumer digital services, we have remained strong for the video. Our friDay Video, it's already named ranked number one in terms of paid subscription usage or viewership, and fourth in a row, fourth time in a row. Our fraud prevention detection service is also going very strong. That is not only a business, but for us, it is our social responsibility, corporate social responsibility to help prevent these fraudulent calls or messages or websites from reaching our customers. Our handset insurance and payment also has posted a very good year-over-year growth.
For the enterprise ICT, we have been focusing on four major areas. That is smart city, smart health, and then digital transformation, and also telecom-based system integration projects. For smart city, in particular, in the management of energy usage systems, so smart energy management systems, and then also energy-saving streetlights, university microgrid solutions, and then also EV charging. We see a lot of demand in this area, and we also have quite a few, like 10 projects in these EV charging infrastructures across the island, like quite a few university campus. Apparently, that is the focus of the central government. Several departments have actually granted some subsidies in these areas and then encourage the local governments and also universities to have these kinds of infrastructure in place. This presents a very good opportunity for us.
And we also have realized quite a bit of them, and this trend will continue. For smart healthcare and our current President Lai, this Healthy Taiwan is his slogan for his administration because his background is medical. We see a lot of policies that are really in line with what we have been investing for. This telemedicine becomes the core technology, and that will be supporting all these new policies, like extending the rural area medical care coverage to the urban area, but then expanded the scenarios to 10 more. Not only limited by the geolocation, now even in the urban areas, people with the needs can also benefit from it. Also this is extended to the long-term care.
At the same time, they also ask for those clinics and then local hospitals to go cloud for their health information systems to go cloud. That is a very good opportunity for us. We are actually working on the Cloud HIS. We were one of the few granted by the government that we have gotten the go-ahead and also some subsidies from the government to continue implementation. This year, we're going to have a soft launch on that. This will be a new area for us to enter into the community healthcare kind of area. This is expansion from what we started with, the telemedicine only for the rural areas. This is expanding in terms of the type of applications and also the beneficiary target audience is also increasing. Okay.
And then we are looking at the smart health revenue actually grew 24% last year, YOY. And then the third area is digital transformation. That is really cloud-based business. And not only we have very good subsidiary, Nextlink, which was just listed publicly in December, is doing very well. And then for our own enterprise, we are endorsing the Microsoft solutions. So that is seen because the GenAI, not only Microsoft Suite already is very penetrating in the business world, but then because of the GenAI, so we see a lot of interest to ask for this kind of support, assistance, or quick implementation. So we see a lot more of the professional service opportunities as well. So this digital transformation, we also have done very well and very good growth. Telecom-based SI is always something we have done very well.
And then, because the government recently has been focusing on the infrastructure, the sustainability, so we have seen a lot more both the government or local government and also big enterprises seeing the need for this kind of infrastructure kind of upgrade or going to cloud. So this telecom-based SI is also seeing a very good growth. We also see a big demand in the IDC business. And that is also why we are expanding one floor of our TPKC Building to expand the IDC capacity for this big demand. Okay. Next, please. Okay. Just some highlights in the consumer service area. As I mentioned earlier, friDay Video has ranked number one again among Taiwan's local OTT platforms. And then we see the double-digit growth in membership and also user engagement.
We started with the GenAI kind of approach, and we definitely see more than 20% watch time boost from these kinds of GenAI-enhanced recommendations. On the right-hand side, the Mobile Circle, that is our APP for Far EasTone users. We have won this IDC Asia Future of Customer Experience Award for its AI-enabled MarTech capabilities. Okay. It is also ranked single A in the 2024 loyalty survey among telcos rewards program. Okay. On the left-hand side, that is the Guardian Network and what I was talking about earlier that we've done a lot in this using AI to detect and block fraudulent calls, texts, and also websites that our users would otherwise visit. So there's a lot of accomplishments there. On the right-hand side, we are doing the new marketing to mobile business.
So unlike before, what we usually see among this industry is, okay, you want 999, 1399, 499. You only hear about pricing. There's really no product per se. There's no target audience kind of focus. So we start focusing on different TAs. So we have collaborated with MaiCoin. That is the number one share crypto coin exchange company in Taiwan. We worked with them. We offered this kind of a free giveaway and also for Bitcoin for our GA renews program. And that is really targeted for the younger generation because apparently, I was told these folks, they are not interested as much in the stock market. They look at these crypto coins. So this is for that younger generation TA. And then on the other hand, we also offer this concert tickets by our local legendary singer, Jody Chiang.
Even my chairman knew about her at our board meeting today, and he actually mentioned it, so this is also for the senior kind of a generation, even though she's very popular, and then probably for folks that really like her, it probably ranges between 30 to 60, 70. I don't know, but she's definitely a very popular local legend here, so we will be doing more kind of this diversified and then different non-traditional kind of a way of approaching our mobile users and just give them different kind of promotion, different kind of offering, and then with different TA in mind. Okay. All right, and then we have quite a few honors and ESG-related recognitions, and here's a few for your reference, so I think most importantly, we actually won this number one again. It's ranked in the DJSI Sustainability Indices, the World Index.
So we are number one in the telecom industry. So we took pride in that. That is the second time in a row. And then for the local in Taiwan ESG Index, that is for us, that's a seven years in a row. And also for the TCSA, we are number one again. And with the 11 awards, they have a sub-award. And then also for CommonWealth, this magazine, they do this Excellence in CSR Award. We also maintain Taiwan's Telco number one. For the others, I won't just repeat them one by one for you, and then you can just take a glance at it. Okay. All right.
So, for our 2025 priorities, as you might know, actually, as we have agreed with the Fair Trade Committee, our former APT customers, they have until the end of this year if their contract are due for renew or already up for renew. So, this December 31st will be the last day their contract or their status will be honored. But of course, if their contract is beyond the deadline or the expiration date on their contract is beyond December 31st, those will still be honored. But that is very few are still with that status. So there will be major migrations happening this year. So as we migrate former APT users, we are expecting to see some uplift. And then also once we are able to migrate them completely, that we will further be able to consolidate our core network.
That will be more savings to be expected next year. Okay. Also, of course, we need to continue to grow our mobile service revenue. And even though our business-as-usual kind of approach has been serving us well, but then we are also expecting to offer new products and then new ways of marketing. Okay, and then for our Mobile Circle, that is our application. We have now more than six million downloads and then 2.2 million active users monthly. So that is quite a bit of traffic, and then we are looking to monetize that traffic so we can expand our digital services. And at the same time, just the platform itself, we can realize some platform economy. Okay, and then for the enterprise business, we will continue to grow our four dragons. I call them four dragons. That's the four areas I mentioned earlier, so we are all set.
And then I think the team is on the right track, and then we just continue to do well there. And also we will explore. We've been exploring, but then this year, since we are almost done with the merger, we got some time now can really focus on external opportunities for further growth. Okay. And of course, not only do we help our partners with the AI adoption, internally, we are also accelerating our adoption speed for our employees to utilize AI to enhance automation productivity and also at the same time use this opportunity to really optimize, streamline our process, and then help collaborations across teams more efficient. And then all in all, I believe this will further make our companies even stronger. All right. And then for our 2025 financial forecast, so we will be looking at TWD 108.33 billion for the revenue.
It is a 3.5% YoY growth. If you compare last year, that's a double digit. Of course, it's a lot less than what we had last year, but last year's growth also because of the merger, so you just couldn't expect that another year like that, so we are more back to our steady growth, but then because the base is also much bigger, and then also EBITDA is also at a 3.8% level. For the net income, although we still have some synergies to realize, that will help us save some OpEx, but at the same time, as you know, this power usage and then the utility costs will continue to grow, and then recently, what we know is that Taipower's budget got cut in our Legislative Yuan, so we believe that cost eventually, sooner or later, will be transferred to either residential or the industry.
And most likely, I think it's the latter. So with all that, our synergy, yeah, to a certain extent, will be offset by this anticipated cost increase. Okay. And then for our EPS, it's going to be 3.63. And it is also a 2% increase from last year, which we did very well. Okay. For the CapEx, we are looking at just about the same. So like 8.3, this is a cash CapEx, right? And then 8.3 with 0.5, it's deferred from the 2024 payment. So overall, it's kind of pretty flat. Okay. All right. For the dividend, so here is the trend for our dividend. So this year, it's going to be 3.56. It is a 100% payout. But then most importantly, we were looking at this 3.56 over 3.25 that we paid for the last few years.
That was 9.5% year-over-year growth, and then compared to our EPS growth, that was at a 4.7%. So this is double that, so we think this is to show that our appreciation for the support from our shareholders, and we like to share our results, our earnings with our shareholders to its full value. Okay. All right. With that, I concluded my report today, and then we welcome your questions. Thank you, President Chee. And ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our question and answer session. If you have a question for any of today's speakers, please press star one on your telephone keypad, and you will enter the queue. After you are announced, please ask your question. If you find that your question has been answered before it is your turn to speak, please press star two to cancel the question. Thank you.
Now, please press star key and number one on your keypad if you would like to ask the question. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in question and answer session. If you would like to ask the question, please press star one on your keypad. Thank you. To ask a question, please press star key and number one on your keypad. Thank you. I either have done too good a job or a lousy job. I got no questions. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are now in Q&A session. Please press star one on your keypad to ask the question. Thank you. So we thank you for your support and confidence.
And then, as always, our IR team is standing by for anytime you have questions, just call them up. And then we welcome any opportunities if you want to have further discussions in private or scheduled conference call or meeting. But then thank you all again for coming to this IR call. Thank you, everyone. And see you next quarter. Bye-bye. Yes. Thank you, President Chee and Gary. Goodbye. Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you 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. We thank you and goodbye.