South Korea's No. 1 mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. said Thursday its second-quarter operating income increased nearly 4 percent from a year earlier, helped by improved performance of its subsidiaries.

Operating profit came to 423.3 billion won ($380.3 million) in the April-June period, the mobile carrier said in a regulatory filing. This represents a 3.9 percent on-year gain.

Sales also increased 1.8 percent on-year to reach 4.34 trillion won during the cited period, the company said.

The figures hovered above the market forecasts. Local brokerages had predicted that the industry leader's sales would rise 1.2 percent on-year to 4.32 trillion won, and its operating income is estimated at 404 billion won, down 0.8 percent from a year earlier.


The company posted the modest result for the second quarter as the sales for its subsidiaries -- SK broadband Co. and SK Planet -- posted 730.1 billion won and 274 billion won, respectively.

However, the company posted a slight fall in its operating income when excluding the result of the subsidiaries due to a rise in marketing costs that increased 6.5 percent on-year to 767.7 billion won during the same period.

Operating income of SK Telecom decreased 3.3 percent on-year to 462.3 billion won in the second quarter, the company said. (Yonhap)