SINGAPORE, Feb 19 — Singapore Telecommunications reported a 22 per cent rise in its third-quarter underlying net profit today, boosted by strong contributions from its Australian telecom unit Optus.
Revenue from Australian telecom unit Optus, the company’s top revenue generator, rose 3 per cent to S$1.86 billion (RM8.27 billion).
The company also benefited from the strong performance of India’s Bharti Airtel, which reported a nearly sixfold jump in consolidated third-quarter net profit, helped by a one-time gain and as tariff hikes continued to boost its per-user revenue.
SingTel holds an effective equity interest of 28.7 per cent in Airtel.
“We remain optimistic about Asia’s long-term growth potential and continue to see strong demand for digitalisation and the digital infrastructure that underpins it,” Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon, said.
South-east Asia’s largest telecom firm said its underlying net profit for the quarter ended December 31 was S$680 million, compared with S$559 million a year earlier.
That was largely in line with the Visible Alpha consensus of S$678.8 million.
SingTel added it expects to pay a total ordinary dividend of around 16.5 Singapore cents per share and forecasts a total capital expenditure of around S$2.8 billion for fiscal 2025. — Reuters
