Singapore's SingTel posts drop in quarterly earnings

Nov 11, 2010, 2:44 GMT

Singapore - Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, South-East Asia's biggest phone company, said Thursday that its net profit for the quarter that ended September 30 dropped 6.7 per cent year-on-year because of losses from its new African operations and related costs.

Net profit in SingTel's second quarter was 892 million Singapore dollars (694 million US dollars), down from 956 million Singapore dollars in the same quarter a year earlier, the company said.

Group revenues rose 8.1 per cent to 4.44 billion Singapore dollars on the back of robust growth in Singapore and Australia, it said.

But SingTel said earnings from its regional mobile associates declined 6 per cent in the quarter to 536 million Singapore dollars because of lower contributions from Indonesia's PT Telekomunikasi Selular and India's Bharti Airtel Ltd, which includes the African operations.

'The group continues to generate strong revenue growth and cash flows from Singapore and Australia,' chief executive Chua Sock Koong said.

Some strategic investments, however, were 'expected to incur costs before delivering longer-term scale benefits,' she said.

'Our associates are also transforming themselves and investing in growth as evidenced by Bharti's foray into Africa,' Chua said.

SingTel and its associate companies operate in eight countries in the region - Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - and in several African countries as Bharti Africa.

SingTel said Wednesday that its mobile customer base increased to nearly 368 million by the end of September, a year-on-year increase of 35 per cent.

Read more about Singapore Business