China Tower registered double-digit growth in its new smart tower and energy businesses in Q1 which offset a decline in its core tower division due to new commercial rental agreements with the country’s mobile operators.

Chairman Zhang Zhiyong explained in a statement its smart tower unit aims to expand onsite monitoring capabilities to bring digital capabilities to operators’ sites.

Net profit increased 15 per cent from Q1 2022 to CNY2.5 billion ($363.1 million) and operating revenue 2.5 per cent to CNY23.2 billion.

Its energy business grew 47.8 per cent to CNY949 million and smart tower sales 37.6 per cent to CNY1.6 billion.

The divisions accounted for 11.1 per cent of total revenue, up from 8.1 per cent in the same period of 2021.

Revenue from its tower business fell 3 per cent to CNY18.8 billion, attributed to the impact of new five-year pricing and service agreements signed in December 2022.

Indoor distributed antenna system (DAS) sales grew 27.1 per cent to CNY1.7 billion.

The company added 17,000 towers for a total of nearly 2.1 million sites under management, with the number of tenants increasing 130,000 to 3.6 million and the average per tower up from 1.71 to 1.76.