Singtel first-half profit nearly trebles to $3.4 billion on one-off gains; outlook raised for core units
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Singtel declared an interim dividend of 8.2 cents per share, higher than the seven cents per share paid a year earlier.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO FILE
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BENGALURU - Singtel posted a 14 per cent rise in first-half underlying profit on Nov 12, helped by a strong performance from its Australian unit Optus and regional associates, and said it expects higher operating earnings from its core units.
Singtel now expects full-year earnings before interest and tax for the operating company (OpCo), which excludes contribution from regional associates, to grow between high single digits and low double digits.
It had earlier forecast high-single-digit operating earnings growth for OpCo, which posted a near 13 per cent rise in first-half operating earnings.
“We expect our growth engines to change the complexion of the business in the midterm as they continue to scale,” said group chief executive officer Yuen Kuan Moon.
Net profit swelled 176 per cent to $3.4 billion from $1.2 billion a year ago on the back of a net exceptional gain of $2.05 billion. This came mainly from the sale of a partial stake in Indian associate Bharti Airtel
Singtel declared an interim dividend of 8.2 cents per share, higher than the seven cents per share paid a year earlier.
Its shares rose 1.1 per cent, or five cents, to $4.67 as at 9.05am on Nov 12, after its results announcement.
South-east Asia’s largest telecom firm reported underlying net profit of $1.35 billion for the six months to Sept 30, higher than $1.19 billion in the year-ago period but slightly below Visible Alpha’s consensus estimate of $1.37 billion.
The profit highlighted a 12 per cent rise in post-tax contribution from regional associates, including India’s Bharti Airtel, Indonesia’s Telkomsel and Thailand’s AIS.
Bharti Airtel reported a 89 per cent jump in quarterly profit, as users upgraded to higher-margin 4G and 5G plans, as well as steady subscriber additions.
Optus reported a 27 per cent rise in operating earnings due to growth in the mobile division.
Singtel said it had not made provision on Optus after the Australian subsidiary experienced a fatal outage in September.
“The incident is the subject of ongoing investigations,” it said. “Where potential liabilities are uncertain or cannot be reliably estimated, no provision has been made.”
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation from Nxera, the company’s digital infrastructure arm, is expected to achieve an annual growth rate of more than 20 per cent over the next four years, Mr Yuen added.
The division is expected to benefit from new operational data centre capacity, the company said in a statement. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
