Singaporean fixed and mobile operator StarHub has announced its results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31 December 2011, showing solid gains for the group both in terms of net income and subscribers. The telco booked net profit of SGD92.6 million (USD74.2 million) for the October-December quarter, up 15% from SGD80 million in the corresponding period of 2010, while full year income climbed 20% to SGD316 million. Operating revenue for the last three months of 2011 rose 10% year-on-year to SGD612.6 million, while group EBITDA increased 9% to SGD185.3 million. On a full year basis, operating revenue was up 3% at SGD2.312 billion and EBITDA was 12% higher at SGD676 million. Service revenue for the quarter and full year also increased – by 4% and 1% respectively – with mobile and broadband services contributing the bulk of the growth. The group’s EBITDA margin as a proportion of service revenue was 33.1% for 4Q11 and 31.1% for the full year. Meanwhile, CAPEX for the quarter was up 9% at SGD116.8 million, but 9% lower on an annualised basis.
StarHub said its mobile division booked a 3% rise in service revenue – both for the quarter and full year. Post-paid mobile services revenue increased 6% y-o-y in 4Q11 to SGD251.8 million and climbed to SGD968.2 million for the full year. Q4 sales from pre-paid mobile services fell 8% y-o-y to SGD60.4 million, however, and was 6% lower for the full year. The operator closed out 2011 with 2.192 million cellular customers, of which 51% were pre-paid. Net additions totalled 22,000 in the last three months of the year, it added.
The operator also recorded gains from broadband services where fourth-quarter revenue of SGD60.6 million was up 3% y-o-y, and was SGD5.7 million higher for the full year. StarHub had a total of 440,000 residential broadband customers at 31 December 2011, up from 438,000 at end-September and 422,000 at the end of 2010. Broadband ARPU was flat at SGD45 per month in Q4 2011, although for the full year StarHub said ARPU dipped SGD2 due to higher promotional and discounts offers as it looked to drive take-up for its hubbing services. The telco’s fixed network revenue rose by 3% y-o-y for Q4 to SGD88 million and climbed 2% for the full year to SGD336.7 million. ‘Data & Internet’ services revenue, which account for 84% of the group’s fixed network revenue, was up 4% and 1% y-o-y for the quarter and full year respectively. Pay-TV revenue increased 8% y-o-y to SGD98.7 million for the quarter but on a full year basis, declined by 5%. StarHub attributed the fall to lower subscription revenue from its ‘Sports’ group following the reduction in the monthly subscription price from SGD25 to SGD12 in June 2010, and the non-recurrence of the 2010 World Cup event in FY2011.