Boosted by a $1.55 billion gain from the partial divestment of its headquarters, Singapore Telecommunicationshas reported FY2025 earnings of $4.02 billion, up 405% y-o-y.
Singtel's underlying net profit for the year ended March 31, which excludes the exceptional items, is up 9% y-o-y to $2.47 billion.
The gains were led by operational improvements in units especially Optus, its subsidiary in Australia, as well as from NCS, its IT services unit and also regional mobile associates in India and Thailand.
The company plans to pay a final dividend of 10 cents, bringing its full-year payout to 17 cents, beating the preceding FY2024's 15 cents and slightly above the 16.5 cents guided.
"Our focus on execution has lifted overall business performance and our cost optimisation efforts further aligned spending with our business objectives, improving the efficiency of our resources that have been freed up for future growth,” says group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon.
However, he warns that macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties caused by volatility in tariff policies persist.
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Even so, Singtel is guiding for the EBIT of the current FY, excluding associates, to grow in the "high single digits".
"We remain confident in our business diversity, fundamentals and growth opportunities such as digitalisation and AI, and stand ready to adapt and respond to the changing business environment," he adds.
This time last year, Singtel announced a $6 billion mid-term asset recycling target and has achieved more than half of this target. Singtel is now raising this target to $9 billion.
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Besides the partial divestment of Comcentre, its headquarters, Singtel has been unlocking value via other means such as regular trimming of its stake in its listed India mobile associate Bharti Airtel.
These moves have helped Singtel shares gain renewed interest in the investment community, with a gain of around 60% in the past 12 months.
As a refinement of its capital management efforts, Singtel plans to buy back $2 billion worth of shares over three years.
The share buyback is on top of the so-called value realisation dividends that Singtel is committed to paying - essentially taken from proceeds of asset recycling, minus off capex required for new growth such as data centres.
“Our value realisation share buyback programme reflects the robustness of our capital management approach and balance sheet," says group CFO Arthur Lang.
"Together with our dividend policy which includes the value realisation dividends, this move reflects our confidence in the group’s long-term value and our commitment to deliver sustained value for shareholders," he adds.
Singtel shares closed at $3.85 on May 22, up 1.05%.
