South Korea’s leading mobile carrier KT swung back to profit in the second quarter thanks mainly to restructuring efforts it has made since last year.

The wireless carrier said in its regulatory filing that it posted 5.43 trillion won ($4.65 billion) in revenue and 36.9 billion won in operating profit. The quarterly revenue decreased from 5.63 trillion won in the second quarter last year, but the operating profit increased significantly from an operating loss of 83.8 billion won.

“KT recorded robust sales and profits in the second quarter thanks to its efforts to beef up its competitiveness in the telecom market and improve management efficiency through business restructuring,” said Shin Gwang-seok, chief financial officer of the Seoul-based telecom firm in a statement.

He also added that the firm has improved its financial soundness by altering its business portfolios.

The mobile carrier slashed around 8,000 jobs through a voluntary retirement program last year and sold some of its affiliates including KT Rental and KT Capital.

KT said the mobile network business saw its revenue increase 1.7 percent to 1.83 trillion won on the back of an increase in the number of subscribers for LTE services, standing at 12 million -- almost 70 percent of the firm’s entire mobile subscribers -- as of the second quarter.

A wide range of mobile plans rolled out in the period were some contributing factors for the increase in the subscriber base, according to the firm.

KT, however, saw the sales of its landline network business slide 7.5 percent to 1.3 trillion won due mainly to a drop in the number of subscribers.

The company earned 409 billion won in sales, up 7.3 percent from a year ago, from its media content sales, and recorded a revenue of 801 billion won in the financial business thanks to robust business performance of its affiliate and credit card firm BC Card.

“The company will focus on spreading its ‘GiGA’ network infrastructure to take the lead in the era of 5G and will make the utmost efforts to grow new businesses and offer differentiated services for customers,” the KT CFO said.

The mobile carrier has been striving to get ahead of its rivals in the next-generation 5G network by commercializing services faster than those on the current 4G network.

By Kim Young-won  (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)