Operating revenue slipped 1.5% to $4.4 billion due to mandated cuts in Australian mobile termination rates. Excluding this rate impact, revenue grew 3.0%.
In a SGX filing on Thursday, Singtel says the “resilient” 3Q performance was due to a strong core business and higher contributions from regional mobile associates.
“Our ICT business, particularly cyber security, has held us in good stead. This quarter, we focused on building out our global network of security operation centres while increasing resources in sales and delivery to meet the growing demand for cyber security services” says Singtel Group CEO Chua Sock Koong. Revenue from Singtel’s cyber security business grew 9.8% to $113 million in 3Q.
Meanwhile, higher consumer home services revenue in Singapore and growth in postpaid mobile customer numbers in Australia helped mitigate continued voice to data substitution and roaming revenue declines.
The Singapore consumer business saw revenues increase 4% as home services revenue grew 7% on the back of the sub-license of Premier League content rights and customer migration to higher-speed fibre broadband plans. This was partially offset by declines in roaming, voice and SMS.
In Australia, Optus leveraged an expanded 4G network to add some 94,000 branded postpaid customers in the quarter, mitigating declines in the wholesale business.
Singtel reports that overall revenue declined 10% in Australia, due to mobile termination rate cuts and service credits from device repayment plans. However, excluding one-off items from the previous year, EBITDA would have been up 3% despite higher network costs and content charges.
In addition, Singtel’s associates’ post-tax underlying profit contributions increased by 6.1% amid increased competitive intensity and higher spectrum and network investments. Strong growth at Telkomsel, Globe and NetLink Trust was partially offset by declines at Airtel and AIS.
“While there are concerns of a global economic slowdown, the growth story in the developing markets where we are invested remains compelling as mobile data usage continued to grow across all our mobile associates,” Chua says.
"We will continue to see the opportunities to invest in mobile businesses in emerging businesses. In the digital space, we will not be averse to making investment in cyber security and digital marketing that will allow us to improve our technology and expanded market reach," she adds.
Singtel closed 3 cents lower at $3.84 on Wednesday.
