Telecom Lead Asia: Despite a significant decline in
Airtel’s pre-tax contribution, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel)
Group posted S$18.82 billion revenue in fiscal 2011-12, up 4.2 percent against
S$18 billion a year earlier.
Airtel’s overall pre-tax contribution declined to
S$139 million, partly due to the weaker Indian Rupee, which fell 12 percent
against the Singapore Dollar.
Bharti Airtel’s contribution from its south Asia
operations was down 24.7 percent at S$148 million.
Airtel South Asia posted a strong revenue growth of
10 percent. Earnings were affected by India’s 3G rollout costs, license fees
amortization and higher finance expense.
SingTel said Airtel Africa operations continued to
register double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth driven by network expansion and
customer growth.
Pre-tax profit from SingTel’s regional mobile associates
rose 6.4 percent on year to S$510 million as contributions from its Thailand
and Indonesian partners were higher.
In Q4, the SingTel Group posted revenue of S$4.7 billion,
up 3 percent, as compared to S$4.6 billion a year earlier.
The fourth quarter net profit for the Group grew 30
percent to S$1.29 billion, primarily from an exceptional net tax credit of
S$270 million on an increase in value of assets transferred to an associate.
For the group’s Singapore operation reported revenue of
S$1.7 billion in Q4, up 3.4 percent against S$1.6 billion for the Q4 2011.
For the full year, net profit increased 4 percent to
S$3.99 billion.
The Group’s Australian operation Optus reported stable
EBITDA on a 1 percent decline in operating revenue. This reflected continued
intense competition and the mandated reduction in mobile termination rates from
9 cents per minute to 6 cents from 1 January 2012. Net profit grew 2 percent to
A$267 million.
In Mobile, operating revenue was down 3 percent
while mobile service revenue declined 2 percent to A$1.23 billion.
It was a challenging quarter but we kept focused on
executing our strategy and met the guidance we had set out. The regional mobile
associates turned in marked improvements in their operating and financial
performance. Despite the weaker regional currencies and fair value losses,
contributions from our associates rose 6 per cent,” said Chua Sock Koong,
SingTel Group CEO.
Mobile Communications revenue grew 5 percent to
S$478 million. SingTel extended its market share by 1.1 percentage points to
45.93 percent from a year ago. In the quarter, SingTel added 30,000
postpaid customers, bringing its customer base to 1.95 million, with increased
smartphone connections and higher SIMs take-up for integrated mobile broadband
bundles.
Postpaid ARPU declined 6 percent to S$82, largely
reflecting the increase in data-only SIMs. Excluding data-only SIMs, postpaid
ARPU declined 3 percent because of lower roaming traffic and the increased
popularity of discounted bundled services plans.
Data and Internet revenue fell 3 percent to S$403
million due to planned price adjustments with the NextGen NBN and one-off
billings for managed services in the corresponding quarter last year.
