Singapore Telecommunications said Tuesday its fiscal first-quarter net profit rose 10.4% on the back of strong sales in Singapore, an appreciation of the Australian dollar and increased contributions from its regional mobile associates.

In a statement, SingTel said net profit for the April-June quarter was at S$927 million, up from S$840 million last year.

Operating revenue was at S$3.57 billion, up 10.5% from S$3.23 billion previously.

Underlying net profit, which strips out goodwill and exceptional items, was at S$868 million compared with S$837 million last year.

The results were higher than those in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of analysts, which forecast net profit at S$852 million, revenue at S$3.28 billion and underlying net profit at S$841 million.

Its operational earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, margin fell to 31.3% from 32.2% last year.

In the statement, SingTel said its Singapore operations saw revenue rise 10% to S$1.16 billion, boosted by double digit growth at its mobile and Internet businesses.

Operational Ebitda margin fell to 43.7% from 44.9%.

SingTel added 124,000 mobile subscribers in Singapore, raising its total to 1.95 million.

SingTel competes against StarHub Ltd and MobileOne Ltd in the Singapore market, where the mobile penetration rate has already hit 111.2% in June.

StarHub had 1.63 million and MobileOne had 1.4 million customers as of end-June.

In Australia, SingTel said its Optus subsidiary saw revenue rise 3.5% to A$1.9 billion after a marketing campaign and a focus on raising its market share in Internet services.

However, operational Ebitda margin fell to 25.4% from 26.1% in the previous quarter due in part to lower mobile margins as a result of higher handset subsidies.

SingTel said post-tax profit from its regional associates rose 29% to S$463 million from a year ago on the back of strong subscriber growth, especially in its associates in India and Indonesia.

On Monday, SingTel said its regional subscriber base rose 48% on-year to more than 136 million.

Apart from having operations in Singapore and Australia, SingTel owns substantial stakes in Bharti Airtel Ltd in India, PT Telkomsel in Indonesia, Thailand''s Advanced Info Service PCL, Globe Telecom Inc. in the Philippines and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom.

In June, SingTel said it is buying a 30% stake in Pakistan''s Warid Telecom.

Going forward, SingTel said it expects its Singapore business to grow full-year revenue at a single-digit level.

It also affirmed its medium-term target of growing underlying net profit at a double-digit rate.


Source: cellular-news

Tags:SingTel