Update: Asia-Pacific partners help power up Singtel profit

[SINGAPORE] Singapore Telecom said on Thursday that its third-quarter net profit rose 11.2 per cent, boosted by higher mobile data revenue and bigger contributions from its mobile partners in Australia and elsewhere.

Net profit in the three months to December 31 surged to S$970 million (US$712 million) from S$872 million a year ago, the company said in a filing with the Singapore Exchange.

"We delivered a solid third-quarter performance and successfully increased mobile data revenues with better networks, technology, content and service," Singtel group chief executive Chua Sock Koong said.

"In Singapore and Australia, we proactively acquired and recontracted customers on the back of smartphone launches and successfully upgraded them to higher tiered data plans." Revenue rose 3.8 per cent from a year before to S$4.43 billion.

The company said its combined mobile customer base, including the Singapore home market, Australian subsidiary Optus and its regional associates, totalled 543 million people as of end-December 2014, up 9.0 per cent from the year before.

Singtel said its share of the post-tax profit of its associates rose 29 per cent to S$458 million, led by Telkomsel in Indonesia and India's Bharti Airtel.

Singtel, which has expanded beyond the small domestic market, also holds substantial stakes in mobile telecom firms in the Philippines and Thailand. Optus is its wholly owned subsidiary in Australia.

AFP