Tuesday, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., or SingTel, (SGTJY.PK), reported a 5% decline in its profit for the first quarter, hurt by a stronger Singapore dollar that reduced contributions from the company's overseas operations. For the first quarter, Southeast Asia's largest telecommunications company said that its net profit attributable to shareholders fell 5.3% to S$878 million from S$927 million in the prior-year quarter.
The results for the year-ago quarter include a one-off S$84 million exceptional currency translation gain.
The company's underlying net profit for the latest quarter was S$865 million, down 0.3% from S$868 million in the previous-year quarter, while underlying earnings per share declined 0.4% to 5.44 Singapore cents from 5.46 Singapore cents a year ago.
The company noted that net underlying profit for the quarter would have increased 6% if the regional currencies had remained stable from a year ago.
Operating revenue for the latest quarter rose 5.9% to S$3.78 billion from S$3.57 billion in the prior-year quarter, driven by double-digit growth in data and IT businesses in Singapore and Optus' strong focus on mobile and fixed on-net businesses. Commenting on the results, Chua Sock Koong, Chief Executive Officer of SingTel Group said, "As we report in Singapore dollar, the financial results of our regional associates are exposed to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. In this quarter, the impact was negative."
Singapore business
The company's Singapore business recorded an 8.1% increase in revenue from a year ago to S$1.25 billion. Margin declined 2.8 percentage points to 41.7% due to higher mobile selling expenses and content costs for mio TV.
Revenue from data and Internet for the Singapore business grew 11% to S$370 million. The company added 13000 fixed broadband customers in the quarter and retained leadership position with a 54.1% market share.
Mobile Communications reported a 9.7% increase in revenue to S$347 million, helped by a 41% surge in the number of mobile customers. The company added 182 thousand subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total mobile customer base to 2.75 million and a market share of 44.7%. In the prepaid segment, the company added 151 thousand customers in the quarter, bringing the total subscribers to 1.34 million.
Customer base for mio TV, which started a year ago, grew nearly 2,000 to more than 45 thousand at the end of June 30, 2008 from a quarter ago.
IT & Engineering revenue generated by NCS climbed 20% to S$181 million, helped by higher demand for network and infrastructure management, systems integration and facility management.
Optus
SingTel's Optus business in Australia reported a 3.1% increase in revenue from the previous-year quarter to A$1.96 billion despite a 25% decline in mobile termination rates and Optus' exit from unprofitable customer fixed line resale market. The segment's net profit was flat at A$122 million after including depreciation charges from capital investments made in Networks, Satellites and the new Sydney office premises.
Operating revenue for Optus Mobile grew 6% to A$1.11 billion, while outgoing service revenue increased 9.7%. The segment added 101 thousand new subscribers in the quarter, including 87 thousand postpaid additions, to take the total number of mobile customers to 7.24 million. 3G subscribers increased 33% on a sequential quarter basis.
Operating revenue for the Optus Business and Wholesale Fixed division increased 6.7%, aided by an 8.0% growth in Optus Business fixed revenue.
Regional Mobile Associates
Pre-tax contributions from SingTel's mobile associates declined 11% from the prior-year period to S$582 million, due to the negative currency impact, lower earnings from Indonesia's Telkomsel and Philippines-based Globe, and the inclusion of losses from Warid Telecom in Pakistan.
In India, Bharti's pre-tax ordinary profit increased 26% in Indian rupee terms driven by another record quarter of net customer additions. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, Telkomsel's pre-tax ordinary profit declined 11% from a year ago in Indonesian rupiah terms as operating costs and depreciation from network enhancements increased faster than its revenue growth.
Globe's pre-tax profit contribution in Singapore dollar terms declined 26% from a year ago to S$62 million in the first quarter. Service revenue declined as the high fuel and food prices in the Philippines had adversely affected discretionary spending. In Thailand, AIS' ordinary pre-tax contribution in Thai baht rose 18% in the first quarter, partly driven by strong revenue growth in prepaid services, non-voice traffic and international calls while operating expenses fell on lower marketing costs and bad debts. The company's share of losses in PBTL, the only CDMA mobile phone operator in Bangladesh, was S$6 million down from a loss of S$8 million a year ago.
The company's share of pre-tax losses for Warid, the fourth largest mobile operator in Pakistan, was S$22 million in the first quarter, impacted by higher marketing and advertising costs. Outlook
Looking ahead, SingTel noted that as a high proportion of its earnings are from outside of Singapore, its financial performance is sensitive to currency movements in the countries it operates in.
The company said that taking into account the actual performance in the first quarter, the pre-tax earnings contributions from the regional mobile associates are expected to grow at low double-digit level and at a pace slower than the past two years. The company also said that the earnings contributions may be further impacted by currency fluctuations.
SingTel affirmed the earlier outlook issued for its Singapore and Australian businesses.
On the Singapore Stock Exchange, the company's stock is currently trading at S$3.48, down S$0.10 or 2.79% on a volume of 16.99 million shares.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.