Singtel's Q4 earnings hold but revenue dips, hit by forex impact

Singtel on Thursday posted a marginal 0.8 per cent increase in net profit to S$946 million for its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2016.

This includes one-off tax credit and figures from Trustwave, a company that it acquired in September 2015.

The telco said that it would have risen 4 per cent in constant currency terms: "Foreign currency movements against the Singapore dollar affected the group's net profit by 3 per cent or S$27 million for the quarter," it added.

Operating revenue fell 5.6 per cent to S$4.09 billion, impacted by the decline in mobile termination rates in Australia from January 2016 and the weaker Australian dollar. It was also affected by lower handset sales in Singapore.

The group said that in constant currency terms, operating revenue would have dipped 3 per cent.

Earnings remained stable despite the decline in mobile service revenue because it was mitigated by lower traffic expenses in Australia, Singtel said.

For the full year, net profit rose 2.4 per cent to S$3.87 billion, on the back of a 1.5 per cent dip in revenue to S$17.0 billion.

It is recommending a final ordinary dividend per share of 10.7 cents, bringing the total ordinary dividend per share for the year to 17.5 cents, representing a total payout of about S$2.79 billion.