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)
