SINGAPORE - Local telco Starhub posted a 98.4 per cent fall in net profit to $1.3 million for the second half of the year ended Dec 31, 2022, from $81.4 million a year earlier.

This was despite a rise in revenue of 18.7 per cent to $1.3 billion, from $1.1 billion the year before.

At its earnings briefing on Tuesday, the telco said this came on the back of lower profit from operations, including provisions for the company’s Dare+ transformation initiatives.

Dare+ is a five-year transformation plan that includes the establishment of StarHub’s 5G network and other information technology expenditures.

The company also recognised higher non-operating expenses of $60.1 million from impairment losses on certain legacy network assets and the discontinuation of one of Strateq’s business lines in the United States.

Excluding the Dare+ provisions, non-operating items and its corresponding tax effects, StarHub said net profit after tax would have fallen by 34.6 per cent to $53.2 million in the second half of the year.

For the full year, the company’s net profits declined 58.3 per cent to $62.2 million, while revenue rose 13.9 per cent to $2.3 billion.

Within the revenue segments, the company’s strongest growth was in its broadband segment, where full-year revenue grew by 25.1 per cent to $242.4 million.

The company has declared a final dividend of 2.5 cents per share for the second half of the year, lower than the 3.9 cents it declared in the same period a year ago. This brings the company’s full-year dividend to 5 cents per share.

Shares of StarHub closed flat on Tuesday at $1.11, before the results were released. THE BUSINESS TIMES