Singapore Telecommunications reported a 9% rise in full-year underlying net profit on Thursday, boosted by strong performances from unit Optus and regional associates Airtel and AIS, while announcing a new S$2 billion ($1.55 billion) share buyback.
Southeast Asia’s largest telecom firm said its underlying net profit for the year ended March 31 was S$2.47 billion, up from S$2.26 billion a year earlier, but slightly below the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of S$2.56 billion.
SingTel’s Australian unit Optus reported a 5.7% growth in full-year earnings due to improved core mobile performance.
Post-tax contributions from the company’s associates grew 13%, mainly driven by India’s Bharti Airtel, which nearly doubled its quarterly profit on higher tariffs and subscriber growth.
The company declared a final dividend of 10 Singapore cents per share, higher than 9.8 cents apiece declared last year.
Reuters
