SingTel's first-quarter profit grew a healthy 7% to S$1.01 billion ($796.5 million), thanks to higher contributions from the company's regional mobile associates.
Operating revenue for the June quarter fell 5% to S4.29 billion. SingTel blamed the decline on a slow-down in the Australian market and the weaker Australian dollar, which led to a 6% decline in revenue at the operator's wholly-owned subsidiary Optus.
SingTel's Singapore consumer business by contrast increased revenue by 4% and ebitda by 20%, thanks to mobile customer and ARPU growth.
The group enterprise segment posted 4% lower revenue for the quarter, but a 3% increase in EBITDA due to cost management and a sale of subsea cable assets.
SingTel's regional associates – AIS in Thailand, Bharti Airtel in India, Globe Telecom in the Philippines, PBTL in Bangladesh and PT Telkom in Indonesia – meanwhile contributed 14% higher pre-tax earnings of S$552 million.
In India, SingTel benefited from Airtel's price rationalization and improved performance at Airtel Africa. All the associates also registered growth in mobile data usage, SingTel added.
SingTel's regional mobile customer base increased 6% during the quarter to 477 million.
Due to exchange rate variance, the company expects to report a mid-single-digit decline in group revenue for the financial year.
SingTel separately revealed it has decided to hang on to its Australian Optus Satellite business after completing a strategic review.
The operator had been seeking a possible buyer for the segment, and had reportedly drawn at least two offers during the final round of bidding. But in a statement, the company said it is “committed to growing and investing in the satellite business.”
It is possible that the offers received did not match the minimum bid of A$2 billion ($1.82 billion) SingTel was said to be looking for in a sale.