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SINGAPORE: Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) said Thursday its regional mobile partners drove up quarterly profits by 7.7 per cent despite a tough business climate.
For the three months ended June, net profit totalled S$945 million, up from S$878 million a year before, Southeast Asia's largest telecoms firm by revenues said.
The Singapore company's June quarter earnings were below the forecast for an average net profit of S$977.1 million tipped by a Dow Jones Newswires poll of five analysts.
Underlying net profit, defined as net profit before exceptional items and exchange rate differences, was 10.3 percent higher than last year's S$857 million.
Revenues in the April-June period increased 1.9 per cent on-year to S$3.85 billion, SingTel said.
The firm said the marginal growth in revenue was due to a weaker Australian dollar against the Singapore dollar. If the Australian dollar had been stable, its revenue would have increased by 12 per cent.
"The current operating environment remains a challenge," chief executive Chua Sock Koong said. "We will continue to monitor the macro environment and our cost management initiatives."
SingTel said pre-tax profit at its six regional mobile associates grew 12.6 per cent year-on-year to S$647 million, led by strong performances from Bharti Telecom of India and Indonesia's Telkomsel.
SingTel holds a 30.4 per cent stake in Bharti and 35 per cent in Telkomsel. It also has stakes in four other regional mobile operators: Globe Telecom of the Philippines, Warid Telecom of Pakistan, Thailand's Advanced Info Service and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom.
In Australia, wholly-owned unit Optus saw a 12.4 per cent rise in operating revenues to A$2.2 billion (US$1.84 billion) while net profit grew 13.4 per cent to A$139 million (US$116 million).
In the Singapore domestic market, SingTel made revenues of S$1.38 billion, up 10.3 per cent over the year, while net profit rose just 0.3 per cent to S$338 million.
"Despite the challenging and competitive market conditions, the Singapore business delivered yet another set of strong quarterly results," said SingTel, the dominant telecom operator in the city-state.
In recent years, the firm has branched out from its tiny domestic market of over four million people to regional markets, acquiring stakes in strategic mobile operators to drive growth.
The company said on Wednesday its regional mobile phone customer base grew 33 per cent to more than 262 million in the year to June.
- AFP/CNA/yt
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