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February 09, 2011, 7:27 PM EST
By Chan Sue Ling
(Adds details of Singapore operations in ninth paragraph.)
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Southeast Asia’s biggest phone company, reported an unexpected increase in third-quarter profit after boosting sales at home and in Australia.
Net income rose 0.8 percent to S$998.2 million ($784 million) in the quarter ended in December, SingTel, as the company is also known, said in a statement today. That beat the S$925 million average of four analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Revenue rose 5.7 percent to S$4.7 billion on growth in Singapore and Australia, the company’s biggest markets, which made up for lower contributions from regional operations such as Bharti Airtel Ltd. in India and Indonesia’s PT Telekomunikasi Selular. Chief Executive Officer Chua Sock Koong is counting on smartphones such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and investments in startups to revive profit growth as markets saturate worldwide.
“Their regional associates are not doing well because competition is keen in countries such as India and Indonesia,” Alfred Low, an analyst at Philip Securities in Singapore, said before the results.
SingTel, whose largest shareholder is Singapore state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings Pte, declined 1 percent to S$3.09 at the close of trading in Singapore yesterday. The earnings were released before trading began today.
Of the 24 analysts tracked by Bloomberg in the past 12 months, nine recommended buying the company’s stock, three recommended selling it and the remainder rated it “hold.”
Optus Customer Additions
“Singapore and Australia continued to perform and deliver strong revenue growth,” Chua said in the statement. The group continued to invest in multimedia “as we transform the group’s business beyond telecommunications.”
At Optus, Australia’s largest phone operator after Telstra Corp., earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose 5 percent to A$553 million ($559 million) as the company added 150,000 postpaid mobile customers.
In Singapore, revenue rose 7 percent to S$1.63 billion, with Ebitda rising 1 percent to S$587 million. SingTel signed up 41,000 postpaid mobile customers in the quarter, the highest in two years, according to the statement.
Average revenue per user, a key measure of profitability in the mobile phone industry, for postpaid customers in Singapore rose 3 percent to S$92, according to the statement.
Innov8
The pretax profit contribution from the company’s regional mobile units fell 13 percent to S$488 million.
New Delhi-based Bharti reported a worse-than-expected 41 percent drop in profit on Feb. 2. SingTel owns 32 percent of Bharti, India’s biggest wireless provider, and 35 percent of PT Telekomunikasi Selular in Indonesia.
To boost growth and get access to new technologies, SingTel last year set up a S$200 million venture fund to invest in start-ups. The company will work with innovators, government agencies and research organizations to explore new technologies, according to Chua.
The SingTel Innov8 venture fund is part of the company’s plan to transform itself from a traditional telecommunications supplier to a multimedia and information-technology services provider.
--With assistance from Robert Fenner in Melbourne. Editors: Anand Krishnamoorthy, Young-Sam Cho
To contact the reporter on this story: Chan Sue Ling in Singapore slchan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net.
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(Adds details of Singapore operations in ninth paragraph.)
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Southeast Asia’s biggest phone company, reported an unexpected increase in third-quarter profit after boosting sales at home and in Australia.
Net income rose 0.8 percent to S$998.2 million ($784 million) in the quarter ended in December, SingTel, as the company is also known, said in a statement today. That beat the S$925 million average of four analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Revenue rose 5.7 percent to S$4.7 billion on growth in Singapore and Australia, the company’s biggest markets, which made up for lower contributions from regional operations such as Bharti Airtel Ltd. in India and Indonesia’s PT Telekomunikasi Selular. Chief Executive Officer Chua Sock Koong is counting on smartphones such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and investments in startups to revive profit growth as markets saturate worldwide.
“Their regional associates are not doing well because competition is keen in countries such as India and Indonesia,” Alfred Low, an analyst at Philip Securities in Singapore, said before the results.
SingTel, whose largest shareholder is Singapore state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings Pte, declined 1 percent to S$3.09 at the close of trading in Singapore yesterday. The earnings were released before trading began today.
Of the 24 analysts tracked by Bloomberg in the past 12 months, nine recommended buying the company’s stock, three recommended selling it and the remainder rated it “hold.”
Optus Customer Additions
“Singapore and Australia continued to perform and deliver strong revenue growth,” Chua said in the statement. The group continued to invest in multimedia “as we transform the group’s business beyond telecommunications.”
At Optus, Australia’s largest phone operator after Telstra Corp., earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose 5 percent to A$553 million ($559 million) as the company added 150,000 postpaid mobile customers.
In Singapore, revenue rose 7 percent to S$1.63 billion, with Ebitda rising 1 percent to S$587 million. SingTel signed up 41,000 postpaid mobile customers in the quarter, the highest in two years, according to the statement.
Average revenue per user, a key measure of profitability in the mobile phone industry, for postpaid customers in Singapore rose 3 percent to S$92, according to the statement.
Innov8
The pretax profit contribution from the company’s regional mobile units fell 13 percent to S$488 million.
New Delhi-based Bharti reported a worse-than-expected 41 percent drop in profit on Feb. 2. SingTel owns 32 percent of Bharti, India’s biggest wireless provider, and 35 percent of PT Telekomunikasi Selular in Indonesia.
To boost growth and get access to new technologies, SingTel last year set up a S$200 million venture fund to invest in start-ups. The company will work with innovators, government agencies and research organizations to explore new technologies, according to Chua.
The SingTel Innov8 venture fund is part of the company’s plan to transform itself from a traditional telecommunications supplier to a multimedia and information-technology services provider.
--With assistance from Robert Fenner in Melbourne. Editors: Anand Krishnamoorthy, Young-Sam Cho
To contact the reporter on this story: Chan Sue Ling in Singapore slchan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net.
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