Yang Jie says the epidemic has hurt its business. SING TAO

China Mobile (0941) said new customer numbers fell 60 percent for the first two months this year amid the coronavirus outbreak, after posting its net profit last year fell 9.5 percent to 106.6 billion yuan (HK$117.04 billion).

The state-backed telecom giant declared a final dividend of HK$1.723 per share, adding to a full-year dividend of HK$3.250 per share and representing a dividend yield of around 7 percent. Basic earnings per share were 5.21 yuan.

Executive director and chairman Yang Jie said the epidemic has affected the company's overall business, with the total number of mobile customers decreasing by 7.25 million last month while 4G users fell by 12 million. Handset sales also fell 30 percent year-on-year during February, Yang said.

China Mobile has constructed and begun operating more than 50,000 5G base stations and launched 5G commercial services in 50 cities. The company had 15.4 million 5G customers as of the end of February.

The company plans to build 250,000 new 5G base stations this year with 70 million new 5G package customers, said Yang.

The capital expenditure for this year will be 179.8 billion yuan, with over 100 billion for 5G investment, 3 times that of 2019, he said.

Shares of China Mobile dived over 6 percent to their lowest since 2006 before paring the loss to 1.13 percent, closing at HK$48.25.