Singapore Telecom Q1 net profit down 5.3 percent
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) said Tuesday first quarter net profit fell 5.3 percent from the previous year as a stronger Singapore dollar cut earnings from its regional mobile businesses.
Net profit in the first financial quarter to June came in at 878 million Singapore dollars (622 million US), down from 927 million dollars over the same period last year, SingTel said in a statement.
Operating revenue rose 5.9 percent to 3.78 billion dollars from 3.57 billion dollars.
SingTel warned that currency fluctuations could further hurt earnings, which are reported in Singapore dollars.
Pre-tax profit contributions from its regional mobile phone businesses fell 11 percent to 582 million dollars because of the negative impact of the stronger Singapore dollar against the currencies of the countries where it has businesses.
Lower earnings from the Philippines' Globe Telecom, Indonesia's Telkomsel and losses from Pakistan's Warid Telecom contributed to the decline, SingTel said.
Outside of Singapore, SingTel also has stakes in India's Bharti, AIS in Thailand and PBTL in Bangladesh. It has a wholly owned subsidiary in Australia called SingTel Optus.
SingTel said that if regional currencies had remained stable, pre-tax profit contribution would have been flat.
"As a high proportion of the group's earnings are from outside Singapore, the financial performance is sensitive to currency movements in the countries the group operates in," the company said. "The earnings contributions may be further impacted by currency fluctuations."
By mid-morning Tuesday, SingTel shares were trading at 3.49 dollars a share, down nine cents from the previous day.
AFP
