China Unicom, the nation's smaller mobile operator, said first-quarter profit rose 41 percent on finance and marketing savings.
Net profit jumped to 1.96 billion yuan (US$254 million) in the three months to March from 1.38 billion yuan a year earlier, as revenue rose 3.9 percent to 23.85 billion yuan. Earnings per share rose 20 percent to 0.132 yuan from 0.11 yuan.
Profit received a boost from the issue of US$1 billion worth of convertible bonds to SK Telecom of South Korea in July that yielded an unrealized gain of 150 million yuan from changes in the bonds' fair value.
The convertible bonds also helped cut Unicom's finance costs during the period by 72 percent to 60 million yuan from 217 million yuan a year earlier.
Selling and marketing costs fell 12 percent to 4.4 billion yuan from 5.1 billion yuan a year earlier.
