1934 Act Registration No. 1-14418
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
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FORM 6-K
REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER
PURSUANT TO RULE 13a-16 OR 15d-16 OF
THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER 2004
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SK TELECOM CO., LTD.
(Translation of registrant's name into English)
99, Seorin-dong
Jongro-gu
Seoul, Korea
(Address of principal executive offices)
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(Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual
reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.)
Form 20-F |X| Form 40-F [ ]
(Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the
information contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to
the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of
1934.)
Yes [ ] No |X|
(If "Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the
registrant in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b):82- .)
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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This report on Form 6-K contains "forward-looking statements", as defined
in Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E
of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are based on our
current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about our company
and our industry. The forward-looking statements are subject to various risks
and uncertainties. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified
by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expected", "plans", "goal",
"attempt", "consider", "depends", "estimate", "intend", "plan", "project" and
similar expressions, or that certain events, actions or results "will", "may",
"might", "should" or "could" occur, be taken or be achieved. Forward-looking
statements in this report on Form 6-K include, but are not limited to,
statements related to the following: the increase in revenues of SK
Communications Co., Ltd. and its plans to diversify and strengthen its business
portfolio; SK Teletech Co. Ltd.'s efforts to strengthen its competitive
position, the formation of its Chinese joint venture and the launch of new
handsets; SK Telecom's expectations with respect to its mobile network
operations in Vietnam; SK Telecom's efforts to obtain permission for the
retransmission of signals; SK Telecom's plans to add additional banks to its
mobile banking service; the plans of the BcN Consortium; SK Telecom's
expectations with respect to Capex; SK Telecom's expectations with respect to
WiBro; SK Telecom's plan to approve a special dividend; SK Telecom's plan to
increase the number of independent directors; and the projected strategic
marketing expenses. We caution you that reliance on any forward-looking
statement involves risks and uncertainties, and that although we believe that
the assumptions on which our forward-looking statements are based are
reasonable, any of those assumptions could prove to be inaccurate, and, as a
result, the forward-looking statements based on those assumptions could be
incorrect. Risks and uncertainties associated with our business include, but are
not limited to, risks related to changes in the regulatory environment;
technology changes; potential litigation and governmental actions; changes in
the competitive environment; political changes; currency risks; foreign
ownership limitations; credit risks and other risks and uncertainties that are
more fully described under the heading "Key Information -- Risk Factors"
beginning on page 11 of our annual report on Form 20-F filed with the United
States Securities and Exchange Commission on June 1, 2004. In light of these and
other uncertainties, you should not conclude that we will necessarily achieve
any plans and objectives or projected financial results referred to in any of
the forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to release the results of
any revisions of these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or
circumstances.
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SK TELECOM CO., LTD. ("SK TELECOM") CONDUCTED A CONFERENCE CALL ON OCTOBER 28,
2004 FOR THE RESULTS OF THE 3RD QUARTER OF 2004 WHERE THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN
ANNOUNCED.
SUBSIDIARIES AND GLOBAL BUSINESS
1. SK Communications Co., Ltd.
o SK Communications Co., Ltd. is expected to double its revenue in 2004
compared to the previous year, reaching sales of over Won 110 billion
compared to Won 54 billion in 2003.
o SK Communications Co., Ltd. has plans to diversify and strengthen its
business portfolio and make inroads into overseas markets with its
Cyworld Business Model.
2. SK Teletech Co., Ltd.
o SK Teletech Co., Ltd. plans to strengthen its competitive position as
a niche market player in the high-tier handset market by focusing on
profitability rather than simply seeking growth of sales volume.
o SK Teletech Co., Ltd. has plans to enter into a joint venture in China
with a local Chinese partner in early November, 2004, which joint
venture will manufacture handsets in China. SK Teletech Co., Ltd.
plans to have the joint venture launch two handset models by the end
of this year. Of the total USD30 million expected to be invested in
the joint venture, SK Teletech Co., Ltd. expects to invest
approximately USD18 million while two Chinese local partners, Tiandy
Group Telecommunication Industry Co., Ltd. and Datang Telecom
Technology Co., Ltd. are expected to invest approximately USD12
million combined.
3. Global Business
o SK Telecom's first serious overseas mobile network operation in
Vietnam is showing an impressive growth with the subscriber base of
100,000 at the end of September, 2004 after only about a year of
operation.
o SK Telecom has simply been exporting solution products such as
Wireless Internet platform to developing countries with no operational
involvement. In the future, SK Telecom also plans to explore the
operational business models based on SK Telecom's advanced
technologies such as its value added services in advanced countries.
CONVERGENCE AND UBIQUITOUS
1. Satellite Digital Broadcasting Service
The Broadcast Commission recently decided not to permit the retransmission of
the terrestrial signal, however, the Broadcast Commission is expected to
reconsider the issue in the first quarter of next year. We intend to use
reasonable efforts to obtain permission from the Broadcast Commission to permit
retransmission of terrestrial signal in order to deliver the most competitive
commercial services for our customer.
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2. Mobile Banking
Our mobile banking service added yet another banking partner, Kookmin Bank,
making the total number of partner banks to 11. We plan to further expand the
number of banks by another 4 to 6 within this year.
3. BcN (Broadband Convergence Network)
The Consortium for the BcN Trial Business was formed on October 6, 2004, with
Memorandums of Understandings concluded with 31 partners.
WCDMA
SK Telecom is closely reviewing mid- to long-term investment plans. Although SK
Telecom may increase its WCDMA-related investment, SK Telecom intends to manage
its total Capex in a stable manner. Management will attempt to avoid any large
scale Capex change by balancing Capex at the level, which can maximize the
efficiency of the existing and WCDMA networks.
WIBRO
SK Telecom expects to prepare a license bid for WiBro, or Wireless Broadband,
based on the guidelines announced by the Ministry of Information and
Communication and attempt to acquire the license in February next year. SK
Telecom seeks to position WiBro as the complementary solution to existing mobile
communication services, such as WCDMA. WiBro will offer wireless Internet
services at a competitive price in the metropolitan areas where there is a high
demand for high-speed, large packet data services. WCDMA, on the other hand, has
a relatively lower transmission speed compared to WiBro, but has a wider
coverage, making it optimal for mid-to-low-speed wireless Internet services to
be offered with the voice service.
SHAREHOLDER VALUE MANAGEMENT
SK Telecom originally planned to use the proceeds from the treasury share-based
exchange bond issuance of last May for the repurchase and cancellation of
treasury shares in the event our foreign shareholding limit is raised. However,
it does not appear that the foreign shareholding limit will be raised within
this year. Therefore we have decided to distribute the proceeds as special
dividend after the board approval in the beginning of next year.
SK Telecom plans to expand the number of Outside Directors even further through
a change in the board of directors at the 2005 General Shareholders' Meeting.
ANTICIPATED 2005 MARKETING EXPENSES
We expect the current market stabilization to continue into the 4th quarter and
the marketing expenses for the year of 2005 to be lower than those for the year
of 2004. The marketing expenses for the year of 2005, however, are not expected
to be as low as those for the year of 2003 as strategic marketing expenses will
continue to be required in order to secure platform for mid/long-term growth.
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
SK TELECOM CO., LTD.
By: /s/ Sung Hae Cho
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Name: Sung Hae Cho
Title: Vice President
Date: November 2, 2004
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