Seoul, May 7 (IANS) SK Telecom, South Korea’s leading mobile carrier, said on Thursday its net profit fell 12.5 per cent from a year earlier as the company continued to deal with the aftermath of a massive data breach last year.

Net income came to 316.4 billion won (US$218 million) in the first three months of this year, down from 361.6 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing, reports Yonhap news agency.

Operating profit for the January-March period fell 5.3 percent on-year to 537.6 billion won, marking the first time operating profit has exceeded the 500 billion-won level since the large-scale cyberattack in April last year.

Revenue fell 1.4 percent to 4.39 trillion won. SK Telecom said improved profitability in its artificial intelligence (AI) services helped drive the rebound in operating profit from the previous quarter.

The number of mobile subscribers increased by about 210,000 in the first quarter. SK Telecom had lost about 600,000 subscribers following a massive cyberattack on its main servers in April last year but later ramped up marketing efforts by expanding membership benefits and subsidies.

Its AI business also continued to grow. Sales at its AI data centre business rose 89.3 percent on-year to 131.4 billion won in the January-March period.

The mobile carrier said it plans to strengthen its business-to-business services with a comprehensive AI package covering infrastructure, models and services.

SK Telecom also said it will continue developing AI foundation models and expanding integration with global AI technologies to create synergies between its AI services and core telecommunications business.

Meanwhile, South Korean stocks narrowed gains late on Thursday morning as investors hunted for profits following a record-breaking rally amid rising optimism for an end to the U.S.-Iran war.

Hitting a new all-time intraday high of 7,523.84 shortly after the opening bell, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shifted to negative territory, adding 29.34 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,413.9 as of 11:20 a.m.

Traders sold to lock in profits after the KOSPI jumped 6.5 percent a day earlier to breach the 7,000-point mark for the first time and close at 7,384.56.

—IANS

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