Singtel group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon sells S$8.2 million worth of shares

[SINGAPORE] Singtel group chief executive Yuen Kuan Moon sold two million of the telco’s shares on Friday (Nov 13), after the company posted its first-half results and raised its full-year operating guidance.

In a bourse filing on Saturday, Singtel disclosed that he sold the shares at S$4.074 apiece, delivering proceeds of about S$8.2 million before brokerage and stamp duties.

The transaction reduced his direct interest from 9.7 million shares to 7.7 million. His deemed interest was unchanged at 4.1 million shares, leaving him with a total interest of 11.9 million shares, or 0.073 per cent of Singtel’s ordinary voting shares.

For the six months ended Sep 30, Singtel’s net profit fell 55 per cent to S$1.5 billion from S$3.4 billion in the year before.

The decline was mainly due to the absence of S$2.21 billion in net exceptional gains from the partial sale of its stake in Airtel and the Intouch-Gulf Energy merger in the year-ago period.

Excluding exceptional items, underlying net profit rose 10 per cent to S$1.49 billion, from S$1.35 billion the year before. Stronger performances at NCS, Digital InfraCo and Optus, as well as higher contributions from regional associates Airtel and AIS, helped drive the increase.

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The group raised its FY2027 growth forecast for operating company earnings before interest and tax (OpCo Ebit) to between mid and high-single digits, from between low and mid-single digits previously. First-half OpCo Ebit rose 8.7 per cent to S$902 million.

Singtel’s management said the group was entering the second half “with a renewed confidence” compared with six months ago, in a reference to the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and inflation concerns that had clouded the outlook in May.

The board approved an interim dividend of S$0.09 a share, comprising a core dividend of S$0.071 and a value realisation dividend of S$0.019.

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This was 10 per cent higher than the S$0.082 a share declared the year before.

Shares of Singtel closed S$0.04 or 1 per cent lower at S$4.11 on Friday.