Hong Kong-listed China Unicom Ltd, the Chinese mainland's second largest mobile telecom operator, reported on Thursday that its net profit surged 144.7 percent to 9.3 billion yuan ($1.33 billion) in 2007.

The company attributed the growth to a significant lower losses from the change in fair value of the derivative component of its convertible bonds.

China Unicom also received a tax refund of 2.8 billion yuan for the reinvestment of profits made by a subsidiary in China.

The operator's revenue saw an annual increase of 4.4 percent to 99.54 billion yuan in 2007, according to its statement.