Singapore Telecom Q1 net profit down 17 per cent

Singapore Telecom (SingTel) said Thursday its financial first quarter net profit fell 17.4 per cent from the year before due to the absence of one-time gains and weaker currencies of the countries in which it has key investments. Southeast Asia's biggest telecom firm by revenue said in a statement to the Singapore Exhange it earned Sg$835 million ($668 million) in the three months ended June 30, down from Sg$1.01 billion in the same quarter the previous year. Last year's net profit was boosted by an exceptional gain of Sg$150 million from SingTel's dilution of its stake in Indian associate Bharti Airtel, it said. The company had no one-time gain in the fiscal first quarter. Group revenue for the quarter came in at Sg$4.15 billion, down 3.4 per cent from the prior year. SingTel said its share of pre-tax profit from the firm's Asian mobile associates rose 7.6 per cent to Sg$594 million, but the gain was limited by a strong Singapore dollar, which had surged against the currencies of the countries where the company has major investments, according to AFP.