Singapore-headquartered Singtel recorded brisk profit growth in its fiscal H1 ending 30 September on the back of double-digit gains from its regional mobile units and continued improvements in its mobile business in Australia.
Net profit in the April to September period more than doubled to SGD954 million ($703.5 million) due to lower exceptional losses and an 18 per cent increase in pre-tax earnings of its regional associates to SGD1.01 billion, supported by a turnaround in Bharti Airtel’s results from a net loss to a net profit. Revenue increased 3 per cent to SGD7.65 billion.
Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon said despite continued Covid-19 (coronavirus) uncertainty and structural challenges in the industry, “we’ve entered an improved period of recovery that’s seen business activity return”.
He added its fiscal H1 performance underscores its “strategic reset [1] to develop new growth engines in ICT and digital services”.
Yuen stated it is making headway on its other strategic priorities, including the rollout of commercial 5G services and generating value from its infrastructure assets with the partial divestment [2] of Australia Tower Network.
Singapore
For its consumer group, total operating revenue fell 1.3 per cent to SGD867 million, as mobile turnover was flat at SGD384 million, equipment sales dropped 7.9 per cent to SGD179 million and pay-TV revenue dipped 2.3 per cent to SGD94 million.
Post-paid subscribers rose 2.4 per cent to 2.8 million, while prepaid subs declined 8.9 per cent to 1.3 million. Blended ARPU increased 1.7 per cent to SGD24, as prepaid grew 4 per cent and post-paid dipped 1.4 per cent. Average data usage per customer rose 33.3 per cent to 8GB a month.
Australia
Mobile revenue at Optus grew 9.8 per cent to AUD1.75 billion ($1.27 billion), while equipment sales fell 4.4 per cent to AUD619 million.
Its subscriber base was steady, as prepaid subs dropped 1.8 per cent to 3 million and post-paid rose 1.3 per cent to 5.8 million. Blended ARPU improved 12.6 per cent, with double-digit gains in both prepaid and post-paid. Monthly data consumption was up 20 per cent to 12GB.
Group enterprise revenue was steady at SGD1.86 billion.
Singtel maintained is full-year capex guidance at SGD2.4 billion set in May, with AUD1.5 billion earmarked for Optus and SGD800 million for the rest of the group.
[1] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/singtel-profit-falls
[2] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/singtel-cashes-in-on-australian-tower-assets
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