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Half-year profits of Hutchison Whampoa were pulled down by 3G start-up losses.

But commenting on the performance of one of Hong Kong's largest publicly traded companies, Chairman Li Ka-shing said yesterday he remained confident in the future of the technology.

Hutchison Whampoa posted a profit attributable to shareholders of HK$6.07 billion (US$777.8 million) for the first half of 2003, up 2 per cent from a year earlier.

Excluding exceptional items and the 3G start-up losses, profit attributable to shareholders increased 47 per cent from a year earlier, reflecting healthy continuous growth in the group's recurring operations, the company said.

The 3G start-up operations reported total turnover of HK$245 million (US$31.4 million) and a loss before interest expense and taxation of HK$3.895 billion (US$499.4 million).

"Similar to our Orange 2G business, it is normal to have losses in the first three years of the 3G business start-up, but we are confident about this business as you can see from our current subscription number," Li said.

He expected that the company would need more provisions for the 3G business next year. The company said it could not make a profit forecast, but was confident that earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization for the 3G business would break even by 2005.

The company announced that the recent summer promotional campaigns in the UK, Italy and Australia had attracted a total of about 505,000 3G subscribers. This, combined with subscribers in the other markets, made up a total subscription of 520,000 worldwide.

Li expected that the company could receive more than 500,000 subscriptions worldwide the next few months.

Canning Fok, the group's managing director, said: "The summer campaign has laid down a very strong foundation. Now we have half a million subscriptions, we are planning the autumn attack."

Fok said the company had placed an order of 300,000 3G handsets just for the autumn campaign in the UK market and was seeking expansion in the pre-paid market, which takes up a 65 per cent market share in the UK telecommunications market.

But in Hong Kong, they are pushing back the launch to within two months, Li said.

Thanks to a surge in re-exports, the company reported strong growth in its ports and related services division. Turnover amounted to HK$10.9 billion (US$1.4 billion), up 17 per cent from a year earlier.

Due to the completion and sale of more development projects in the first half, the property and hotels division turnover rose 39 per cent to HK$3.3 billion (US$418.1 million) from a year earlier.

Turnover for the group's retail and manufacturing division surged 79 per cent to HK$29.4 billion (US$3.76 billion), with the contribution from Kruidvat Group, which the company acquired in October last year, and from existing health and beauty operations in Asia and the UK.

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