SINGAPORE - Higher mobile services and handset sales lifted StarHub's fourth-quarter earnings, but its full year profit was hit by higher expenses.
Net profit for the three months to Dec 31 rose 10 per cent to $94.2 million, compared with the same period a year ago. But profit for the full year slid by 2 per cent to $370.5 million.
Its fourth quarter revenue rose 5 per cent to $647.4 million, while full-year revenue rose 1 per cent to $2.38 billion, driven by strong demand for the new iPhones launched in September last year.
Service revenue for the fourth quarter grew 1 per cent to $569.2 million but dipped by 1 per cent for the full year to $2.2 billion.
During the fourth quarter, mobile services - half of its total service revenue - grew 2.6 per cent to $320 million. Pay TV service revenue was stable at $100 million for the quarter.
A broadband price war in Singapore led to a 16 per cent drop in StarHub's broadband revenue to $47.7 million for the quarter.
"We saw healthy growth in our customer base across all lines of business even though competition was intense. The low churn rates across our businesses bear testament to our effective and proactive customer retention initiatives," said Mr Tan Tong Hai, chief executive officer of StarHub.
