SingTel Q4 profits beat analysts’ forecasts

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) reported a 61.3% rise in net income for its fiscal fourth quarter ended 31 March 2006 and announced plans to pay out SGD4 billion (USD2.54 billion) to investors. SingTel, Southeast Asia’s largest phone company, reported net income of SGD1.68 billion in the three months to March, up from SGD1.04 billion for the same period of 2005, on a slight rise in revenues from SGD3.24 billion to SGD3.26 billion. Profit after stripping out a one-time gain of SGD618 million – relating to creditors taking control of its loss-making submarine cable unit C2C Ltd – was SGD1 billion, beating analysts’ estimates. EBITDA for the quarter was SGD1.65 billion, up 2.8% from SGD1.6 billion in 4Q’05. Yesterday, the company announced that its aggregate number of mobile subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region had passed the 85-million mark, up from 77.79 million at the end of 2005. SingTel now proposes an SGD4 billion payout to shareholders via a SGD2.3 billion capital reduction and a SGD1.7 billion final gross dividend for financial year 2005/06.