SK Telecom: "No Year-End Cash Dividend... Cannot Disclose Plans to Liquidate Anthropic Stake" (Comprehensive 2)

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SK Telecom announced that it has decided not to pay a year-end cash dividend for last year due to the impact of a large-scale hacking incident. The company also stated that it is difficult to comment on whether it will liquidate its stake in the U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic, or whether that stake could be used as a source of dividend funds.

In its earnings conference call on the 5th, SK Telecom said, "We have decided not to pay a year-end cash dividend, in light of our 2025 results and changes in the business environment," and apologized, saying, "We are sorry that a reduction in last year's dividend was unavoidable due to the impact of the hacking incident."

The company added, "We plan to continue our efforts to return value to shareholders in line with future cash flow and improvements in our financial position," and "This year, we will strive to deliver dividends at levels similar to previous years."

As investor interest has surged on the back of a sharp rise in the value of SK Telecom's stake in the U.S. company Anthropic, SK Telecom said, "Due to confidentiality clauses in the contract, it is difficult to disclose the exact stake," adding, "We periodically revalue our investment assets and will soon update the stake ratio in our business report."

SK Telecom further explained, "We recognize that there is significant market interest in whether we will liquidate our (Anthropic) stake, but we have nothing to say regarding the possibility of using it as a source of dividend funds." Previously, the financial investment industry had projected that Anthropic attracted 25 billion dollars in investment in a pre-initial public offering (IPO) round at a valuation of 350 billion dollars, and that the value of SK Telecom's stake could reach 3 trillion won.

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In its earnings announcement that day, SK Telecom reported consolidated revenue of 17.0992 trillion won and operating profit of 1.0732 trillion won for last year, down 4.7% and 41.1%, respectively, from the previous year. Net profit for the same period also fell 73.0% year-on-year to 375.1 billion won. On a separate basis, revenue came to 12.0511 trillion won and operating profit to 811.8 billion won.

Operating profit for the fourth quarter of last year was 119.1 billion won, a decrease of 53.1% from the same period a year earlier. During the same quarter, revenue and net profit were 4.3287 trillion won and 97.0 billion won, respectively.

The sharp drop in operating profit was due to the large-scale personal information leak that occurred last year. About 650,000 subscribers left in the wake of the hacking incident, and costs surged as the company implemented various customer compensation programs, including a 50% discount on mobile service charges, dealing a direct blow to its earnings.

The company explained that the number of fifth-generation (5G) mobile subscribers stood at 17.49 million as of the end of last year, an increase of about 230,000 from the third quarter of the same year, and that the number of fixed-line subscribers, including ultra-high-speed internet, also recovered to pre-incident levels of net additions in the fourth quarter.

Revenue related to AI data centers was 519.9 billion won, up 34.9% from the previous year. This was driven by higher utilization rates at the Gasan data center in Seoul and the Yangju data center in Gyeonggi Province, as well as the acquisition of the Pangyo data center.

Building on the consolidation of its AI capabilities through the establishment of an AI CIC (Company-In-Company) structure last year, SK Telecom plans this year to strengthen its fundamentals through "selection and concentration" by generating tangible business results in areas where it has strong capabilities.

The Ulsan AI data center project being pursued in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) broke ground in September last year, and construction of an additional data center in the Seoul area is scheduled to begin this year.

In addition, the company plans to strengthen its data center-related solutions business while expanding its submarine cable business to enhance synergies with its AI data center operations.

Last month, SK Telecom successfully advanced to phase two of the government's "independent AI foundation model" project, giving further momentum to its efforts to secure competitiveness in "sovereign AI."

This year, SK Telecom plans to introduce AI across all existing telecommunications domains, including products, marketing, networks, and distribution channels, to enhance the customer experience. By further advancing its AI-based "customer lifetime value" modeling, the company also plans to provide customized offerings for each individual customer in terms of products, membership benefits, and distribution channels.

SK Telecom Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Park Jongseok said, "This year, we will pursue innovation in customer value across all areas of our telecommunications and AI businesses, and do our utmost to restore our financial performance to levels seen in previous years."

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