(Yicai Global) March 18 -- Wireless communications base station builder China Tower has made out like a bandit from its country's push to build its fifth-generation network, reaping a 97.1 percent annual growth in its full-year net profit at CNY5.222 billion (USD744 million). 

Its operating revenue was up 6.4 percent from a year earlier at CNY76.428 billion, according to the results published today by the Beijing-based information and communication infrastructure service provider, in which China's big three telecoms China Mobile, China Telecommunications and China United Network Communications hold stakes.

The company owned 1.994 million cell sites as of the end of 2019 in an annual rise of 69,000. Of its planned 265,000 sites for 5G base stations last year, it finished 161,000, more than 97 percent of which were reconfigured existing sites.

The 5G web will promote transformation and upgrade of the information industry, while also benefiting the firm, China Tower's President Tong Jilu said.

The firm's shares [HKG:0788] fell 6.82 percent in the afternoon to close at HKD1.61 (0.21 US cents) amid a 4.18 percent drop in the overall Hang Seng Index.

Twenty-nine provincial-level administration areas in China have authorized the company to arrange such sites for them. The firm said it will plan the sites and channel resources based on a scientific method, while reducing industrial costs.

Formed in 2014, China Tower mainly builds communications towers and supporting facilities and operates public wireless networks on bullet and metro trains.

Editor: Ben Armour