Singtel's quarterly profit tops estimates on Optus, digital services strength

Aug 13 (Reuters) - Singapore ‌Telecommunications (Singtel) reported ​a ​better-than-expected quarterly underlying net profit on Thursday, fuelled by strong contributions from Optus, ‌regional associates and its digital and data ⁠centre businesses.

Singtel, Southeast Asia's largest telecom operator, reported underlying net ‌profit of S$831 million ($649.22 ‌million) for the quarter ended June 30, higher than a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of ​S$746.1 million and S$686 million a year earlier.

Post-tax contributions from regional associates rose 16.1% to ⁠S$543 million, primarily driven by higher contributions from India's Bharti Airtel ​and Thailand's Advanced Info Service (AIS).

Optus, its Australia-based subsidiary, delivered operating earnings of A$152 ​million ($107.14 million), a 14% jump ‌from year-ago levels.

NCS, which offers AI, cloud, cybersecurity and other services to enterprises, ⁠reported a 29% increase in operating earnings to S$102 million. Digital InfraCo, which provides data centre services, ⁠posted a 10% jump in earnings.

That helped offset a 3.1% ​decline in operating revenue at Singtel Singapore, pressured by intense price competition and lower mobile average revenue per ‌user.

Shares of Singtel were down 0.7% around noon in Singapore, compared with a ‌0.5% decline in the FTSE Straits Times benchmark ⁠index.

($1 = 1.2800 Singapore ‌dollars)

($1 = 1.4186 Australian ​dollars)

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar, Shruti Agarwal and Anjali Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry ‌Jacob-Phillips)

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