SingTel profit rises 5.7%

SingTel has reported a rise in group net profit for the three months ended 30 September 2005 of 5.7% to SGD809 million. Group sales for the quarter rose 5.8% to SGD3.3 billion, from SGD3.1 billion. For the company’s Singapore operations, net profit for the quarter rose 2% to SGD618 million from SGD605 million. Earnings growth for the group continued to be driven by its regional mobile associates, with their net profit contribution up 2.5% at SGD268 million. Among the subsidiaries, India’s Bharti and Indonesia’s Telkomsel continued to be the main growth drivers, SingTel said. Earlier this week SingTel announced its aggregate mobile subscribers totalled 74.05 million at the end of September, a gain of 2.91 million from the end of June.