Double Talk

August 22, 2007 (LBO) – Hutchison Telecom's Sri Lanka celco has doubled operating profits in the first half of 2007 and doubled subscribers in the past year, the global telecom giant said. Hutchison Telecom Lanka, the Sri Lankan mobile operations unit of Hutchison Telecom, has saw operating profits double to 31 million Hong Kong dollars (441 million rupees) in the first half of 2007, a company statement said.

This represented a year-on-year growth of 107 percent.

Hutch said it would speed up the deployment of its GSM network to capture more subscribers.

"¦ the Sri Lanka operations reported a record surge in profitability," Dennis Lui, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Telecom said.

"Hutchison Telecom Lanka intends to capture the market's potential by speeding up the GSM network rollout in other parts of the country during the second half of 2007."

"This is expected to further fuel strong growth."

The company reported "robust growth in Sri Lanka's customer base of 105 percent year-on-year to 819,000."

Turnover of the Sri Lankan unit increased 59 percent year-on-year to 86 million Hong Kong dollars while cashflow growth in EBITDA (earnings before