Singtel Q3 profits drop; sees strong India growth

Singapore-based telecom major Singtel today posted a 16 per cent decline in profits for the December quarter, even as the entity's investment in India's Bharti group saw strong returns.

Singtel's profits tumbled 16.1 per cent to 799 million Singapore dollars for the third quarter ended December 31, 2008.

In the year-ago period, the company had profits of 952 million Singapore dollars, it said in a statement.

However, the firm saw good growth from its investments in Bharti group. The company holds 31 per cent stake in India's leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel.

"The group's share of Bharti's pre-tax operating profit in Indian rupee terms, excluding fair value losses, surged 41 per cent, as it attracted 30.5 million new mobile customers.

"Bharti, India's number one mobile phone operator, had a total of 85.7 million cellular customers, an increase of 55 per cent as on December 31, 2008 from a year ago," Singtel said.

According to the statement, operating revenue rose 38 per cent. "Bharti's expansion into the rural areas and tariff cuts had resulted in lower Minutes of Usage and Average Revenue Per User," it added.

For the third quarter, Singtel's operating revenue fell to 3.70 billion Singapore dollars from 3.83 billion Singapore dollars in the year-ago period.