Just for context, all this time, with its market-leading share, Singtel presumably got to sit out of any consolidation. Yet, dynamics might have changed. Yuen maintains that the field here is too crowded and “definitely not sustainable”, and that Singtel has “always been actively” seeking to be part of the consolidation so that the original incumbent can help “lift the industry together” and commit more investments to come up with innovations and better services.
With Keppel saying it remains keen to sell — presumably before M1’s value diminishes further — and with Simba potentially in a pickle over the spectrum infringement, Singtel, with more than a century of history in the market, will be the steady pair of hands to help repair the market.
Whether Singtel is really serious about acquiring M1, the reaction from some market observers is telling: more than a quarter century after Singapore’s telecommunications market was liberalised, Singtel’s monopolistic instincts have reared their heads again. But then again, even if Singtel is not dead set on M1, it is not its duty to sit back and let StarHub become a stronger competitor.
In any case, Singtel’s domestic mobile business — high profile for sure — is but likely a sideshow to the company’s overall growth prospects over the longer term. In 2HFY2026, Singtel’s mobile service revenue dropped by 9.2% y-o-y and 9.5% for the full year to just $1.17 billion. Together with broadband, pay TV and everything else in domestic Singapore, this is a $3.69 billion revenue business, down 3.1% in FY2026, with ebit of $795 million, down 4.1%.
See also: Is SingPost grasping at straws?
In contrast, NCS, Singtel’s enterprise services unit, has already grown its revenue to nearly $3.2 billion with 7.4% y-o-y growth and ebit of $340 million, a 34% surge. Further momentum is down the road with bookings of some $3.8 billion.
Also, Nxera, the data centre unit under Singtel’s digital infraco unit, has shown similarly strong growth with revenue up 15.8% to $378 million, accounting for more than three quarters of the digital infraco’s top line of $486 million.
To capture the AI boom, Singtel plans to ramp up its so-called GPU-as-a-service under the RE:AI branding. Having spent capex of $60 million to build up 1MW of capacity, Singtel was able to generate revenue of $25 million. Singtel plans to spend up to $600 million this financial year to deploy up to 11MW of capacity, which will make it one of the largest GPU clusters in Singapore. Some $600 million worth of contracts have already been secured, with “low teens” in unlevered internal rates of return seen. With the pending acquisition of STT GDC, alongside KKR, there is a lot more of Singtel in this growing portfolio of digital infrastructure and communications businesses beyond domestic mobile.
Singtel’s FY2026 results may have missed expectations of some analysts, causing its share price to drop on May 21. But for shareholders willing to wait it out, while awaiting potentially bigger dividend payouts, they can look forward to plenty of corporate actions in the pipeline, including IPOs of various units to keep the market interested.
