Hutch Telecom Reports H1

HONG KONG -- Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited (‘Hutchison Telecom’; ‘the Company’; ‘theGroup’; SEHK: 2332; NYSE:HTX) today announced a strong underlying performance for the first six months of 2008. All itsmajor operations reported growth in turnover with particularly strong momentum from Israel, Hong Kong fixed-line andThailand driving the Group’s total turnover up 22.0% to HK$11.8 billion compared with the same period last year.

The Group’s mobile customer base grew 68% in the past 12 months to 11.1 million, with a significant percentage of theincrease comes from Indonesia. Hutchison Telecom continued to register a healthy growth of 3G customers in Israel, HongKong and Macau. The total number of 3G customers for the Group had passed two million by the end of June 2008.

The Group’s Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (‘EBITDA’) increased 14.7% to HK$3,223 million withgrowth particularly strong in Israel and Hong Kong. The Group EBITDA margin was 27.4% in the first six months of 2008, a 1.8%decline on the same period last year reflecting higher network expenses from expansion of the Group’s emerging marketoperations in Indonesia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Operating profit increased to HK$2,281 million for the first six months of 2008 after one-off gains of HK$1,463 million. Thesearose principally from the Indonesian operations which recognised a HK$731 million gain from the first tranche of tower saleand HK$732 million of compensation from a network supplier. Excluding the one-off gains and some accelerated depreciationcharges in Israel and Vietnam, like for like growth in operating profit was 35.0%.

As a result profit attributable to equity holders of the Company from continuing operations surged to HK$1,165 millioncompared with HK$57 million in the first half of 2007.

On 25 July 2008 the Group completed the acquisition of a 5% stake in its 2G and 3G businesses in Hong Kong and Macau fromNEC Corporation taking the Group’s ownership in these businesses from 70.9% to 75.9%. This move reflects the Group’sconfidence in the long term value and potential of the Hong Kong and Macau operations.

The Group’s 3G market leader position in Hong Kong brought it the unique opportunity to be the first operator to launchiPhone 3G in Hong Kong. iPhone 3G is a long-anticipated product around the globe and the response in Hong Kong has beenunprecedented.

The Indonesian operations also extended its partnership with network suppliers and tower companies during the period. Bothare strategic steps to accelerate the network rollout paving for the way to capture the potential in this market. The operationsnow have over 4,000 sites and are on track to rollout 6,000 sites by the end of the year clearly making it the fourth largestnetwork in Indonesia.

In Vietnam the operations made good progress in switching the network to GSM. It has completed the selection of networkvendors and is now working hard to get the network ready for its target launch by the end of 2008.

Dennis Lui, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Telecom, said: “In the first six months of 2008 the Group succeeded indelivering a strong underlying performance both operationally and financially. Our mobile operations in Hong Kong andIsrael strengthened their 3G market leadership position during the period collectively passing two million 3G customers. InIndonesia we have seen good sales momentum since the launch of the service in the first half of 2007 and are pleased withthe progress to accelerate the network rollout. Whilst in Vietnam we have made progress on the conversion to GSM. Thesesteps enhance the Group’s prospect in those markets positioning us favourably to reap the rewards.”

Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. (NYSE: HTX)