China Tower recorded a sharp jump in profit in 2018, driven by steady revenue growth and a double-digit increase in tenancies.

Profit rose 36.4 per cent year-on-year to CNY2.65 billion ($395 million), on operating revenue of CNY71.8 billion, which was up 4.6 per cent.

Its tower business revenue, which accounted for 95.5 per cent of total turnover, edged up 2.3 per cent year-on-year to CNY68.6 billion. Revenue from its indoor distributed antenna system business increased 41.7 per cent to CNY1.8 billion, while its cross-industry application and information business surged six-times to CNY1.22 billion.

The number of towers it managed increased 4 per cent year-on-year to end 2018 at 1.95 million. The total number of tenants rose 12 per cent to more than 3 million, with an average of 1.55 tenants per site, up from 1.44 in 2017.

China Tower said efforts to expand its mobile footprint to businesses and public transport resulted in coverage increasing to about 1.46 billion square metres in commercial buildings, 2,887km of subway line and 17,691km of high-speed rail infrastructure.

The country’s three major mobile operators hold a combined 69 per cent stake in the company.