KT Corp., South Korea's No. 2 mobile carrier, said Friday its net profit advanced 70.2 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier on efforts to boost the competitiveness of its core business and cost efficiency.

Net profit came to 125.9 billion won ($110.2 million) in the July-September period, compared to 73.9 billion won posted last year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit came to 343.3 billion won, up 17.8 percent from a year earlier. Sales, in contrast, shed 2.9 percent over the cited period to 5.49 trillion won.

The operating profit came in line with the median estimate of 344.1 billion won in a poll by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. The market's consensus for sales stood at 5.47 trillion won.

KT also attributed the sound performance to its efforts to cut management costs and focus efforts on mainstay businesses. Last year, KT laid off around 8,300 workers, which inflicted a huge financial burden on the mobile carrier.

It marked the third consecutive quarter for KT to post an operating profit hovering above 300-billion won mark.

By segment, its mobile network business posted 1.84 trillion won in sales, down 3.6 percent from a year earlier.

As of end-September, the number of subscribers for long-term evolution network services came to 12.33 million, which accounts for 69.3 percent of the total users.

The average revenue per user, a key metric of profitability for telecom firms, rose 0.4 percent on-quarter to 36,193 won.

KT's fixed-line business suffered 6.4 percent on-year tumble in sales to 1.28 trillion won in the July-September period due to falling number of users of conventional telephones.

KT said it will make efforts to revitalize the segment by focusing on what it calls "Giga-speed" Internet services.

The company's other business segments, on the other hand, gained ground. Its media and contents business saw its sales rise 8.2 percent on-year to 428.8 billion won.

Sales from financial businesses rose 2 percent over the cited period to 835.5 billion won on the back of strong performances from BC Card Co.

KT's IT solution-related businesses also enjoyed an improved sales of 503.1 billion won in the third quarter, up 28.4 percent on-year.

Shares of KT closed 1.5 percent lower at 29,550 won on the main bourse Friday, with the benchmark index losing 0.23 percent.  (Yonhap)