SingTel has cut its revenue forecast for the year ending in March, after reporting a slight decline in income for Q2 due to a contracting Australian mobile market.
The company has revised its outlook to a low single digit decline in group revenue for the year, from the previous prediction of a slight increase.
Announcing the change, SingTel said price competition and lower mobile termination rates in Australia have led to a decline in revenue for the mobile industry.
SingTel owns 100% of Australia's second largest operator, Optus, which saw its revenue for Q2 fall 4% to A$2.24 billion ($2.34 billion).
As a result, SingTel's Q2 group revenue fell 0.8% year-on-year to S$4.57 billion ($3.73 billion), despite a 4% growth in revenue from Singapore to S$1.67 billion. Net profit was flat at S$886 million.
Pre-tax earnings from SingTel's minority-owned mobile associates – India's Bharti Airtel, Indonesia's Telkomsel, Thailand's AIS and the Philippines' Globe - grew 17% to S$549 million.
But growth would have been even higher had it not been for a 17% slump in Airtel's pre-tax contribution to S$109 million. The Indian incumbent recently reported its eleventh straight quarter of declining profit.
SingTel and its associates ended the quarter with 468 million mobile subscribers, up 11% from a year earlier.
Looking ahead to the full year, SingTel said it expects a mid-single-digit decline in total mobile revenue across both its consumer and enterprise segments.
Total consumer revenue is also expected to decline by a similar percentage, while enterprise revenue is set to grow by low single digits.