Singtel Q1 profit falls 71% in absence of Airtel stake sale, sees weaker Singapore business
Telco's underlying profit still sees robust growth of 21 per cent.
On August 13, Singtel revealed a sharp 71.6 percent decline in first-quarter net profit, falling to $818 million from $2.88 billion in the previous year. The drop was largely attributed to the absence of gains from the partial sale of its stake in Airtel and the merger of Intouch-Gulf Energy. Despite underlying net profit increasing by 21 percent to $831 million, driven by Airtel, AIS, NCS, Optus, and Singtel's Digital InfraCo, weak performance in Singtel Singapore dragged down overall results.
Singtel Singapore's operating revenue dropped 3.1 percent to $901 million, with Ebitda declining 4.6 percent to $363 million. The group's CEO, Yuen Kuan Moon, attributed the decline to intense price competition and a shift towards service declines in mobile, ICT, and legacy services. However, Singtel reported strong contributions from its regional associates, with post-tax contributions rising 16.1 percent to $543 million, largely due to improved performance by Airtel and AIS.
Digital InfraCo also saw a 18.9 percent increase in operating revenue, driven by increased data centre capacity and cloud services.
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