Lower contributions from its biggest regional mobile investments have pushed SingTel’s earnings down 3.5%.
The company reported profit of S%1.83 billion ($1.42b), even as revenue grew 9.7% to S$8.7 billion.
Its Singapore and Australia operations both lifted revenue by nearly 10% in Singapore dollars, but the pre-tax contribution from regional associates fell 11.2% to S$1.06 billion.
The worst performers were the Philippines' Globe, where profit contribution declined 22.2%, and Bangladesh's PBTL, which slumped 29.4%.
SingTel’s two biggest Asian mobile investments, Indonesia's Telkomsel and India's Bharti Airtel, also declined substantially - Telkomsel’s contribution fell 9.4%, Bharti’s 17.2%.
Bharti – 32%-owned by SingTel – revealed Wednesday that its September quarter profit had slumped 27% to 16.6 billion rupees ($347.7m), on soaring expansion costs and price pressures at home.