SingTel said net profit for its fiscal third quarter fell by 8.3%, due to a 4.8% decline in group revenue as well as restructuring and transformation costs.
The operator reported a profit of S$827 million ($669.3 million) and revenue of S$4.59 billion for the quarter ended in December.
Earnings were negatively impacted by S$67 million in exceptional charges, related to factors including workforce restructuring costs at wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Optus, and the network transformation costs at Philippines mobile affiliate Globe.
Globe recently posted a 30% decline in 2012 net profit, due in large part to spending on its IT transformation and network investments.
SingTel's domestic telecom business increased its revenue by 1% to S$1.7 billion, but hefty spending on fiber rollouts prevented revenue from growing by 3%, the company said.
Singapore mobile revenue grew 3% to S$507 million, with the company adding 50,000 postpaid and 13,000 prepaid customers during the quarter.
Optus reported a 6% decline in revenue to A$2.2 billion ($2.27 billion). In Singapore dollar terms, Optus' revenue was down 8.1%.
SingTel's share of pre-tax profits from its minority-owned mobile affiliates – Globe, Indonesia's Telkomsel, India's Bharti Airtel and Thailand's AIS – grew 1.2% to S$455 million, thanks to strong gains at Telkomsel and AIS. But Airtel's contribution fell by 45.7%, and Globe's by 17%.
The group's total mobile customer base increased 9% year-on-year to 473 million.
Despite the profit and revenue dips for the quarter, SingTel CEO Chua Sock Koong said the Q3 performance “demonstrates the resilience of our core operations and focused execution even as we recognise the challenges in the various markets “