Another day in China, another Chinese executive missing (who has now “re-appeared”)…. China Telecom Corporation Limited announced the resignation of Mr. Chang Xiaobing from his positions as Chairman, Executive Director, and CEO of the company effective December 30, 2015.
The Board of Directors of China Telecom appointed Mr. Yang Jie, the Executive Director, President and Chief Operating Officer to assume the responsibilities of the Chairman and CEO until the company appoints a new executive to take over the role.
The stock price of China Telecom declined nearly 1% to $46.84 per share at the time of this writing around 11:45 AM in New York.
Serious violation of discipline
According to the Chinese telecommunications company, Mr. Chang decided to vacate his positions due the investigations against him by the Central Commission for Discipline in China due to allegations of “serious violation of discipline” during his tenure as Chairman of China Unicom.
Mr. Chang was one of the high-profile executives in the country entangled in Chinese government’s crackdown on corruption. He joined China Telecom in August. There had been reports earlier this year that China was considering of combining the two companies.
The Chinese government aims to overhaul its telecom sector by introducing aggressive and positive reforms to eradicate corruption completely. President Xi Jinping ordered serious investigations and the crackdown on corruption in state-owned enterprises and beyond.
China Telecom key performance indicators
China Telecom reported that it had 194.34 million mobile subscribers, up by 2.9 million by the end of the third quarter of this year. The company had 136.81 million 3G/4G subscribers and 5.81 million 3G/4G handset data traffic.
According to the company, it had 111.09 million wireline broadband subscribers by the end of the quarter. China Telecom had approximately 43.73 million 4G terminal users by the end of September 2015, an increase of about 36.65 million in the first three-quarters of this year.
China Telecom’s service revenue was RMB 74.045 million. Its EBITDA was RMB 25.774 million and earnings attributable to shareholders were RMB 5.381 million.
In October, the company was selected as “Best Managed Large Cap Company in China” by equity analysts and investors in Asia Money’s Best Managed Companies Poll 2015.
