Berita 24 English - Singapore Telecommunications Ltd reported its lowest net profit in at least two decades on the back of exceptional loss...
Berita 24 English - Singapore Telecommunications Ltd reported its lowest net profit in at least two decades on the back of exceptional losses and laid out a strategy to focus on areas such as 5G and new growth engines in information-communication technologies.
Singtel, Southeast Asia's largest telecommunications company, reported a halving of annual net profit to S$554 million ($418 million) – the lowest level since at least 1998. Net profit before exceptional items decreased 30% year on year to S$1.73 billion.
Singtel recorded exceptional charges totalling approximately S$1.18 billion for the full year, most of which were related to impairment charges on its investments in digital marketing company Amobee and cyber-security company Trustwave. It had alerted authorities to the charges earlier this month.
Singtel is also exploring ways to leverage its infrastructure assets "to unlock latent value and drive growth" as part of its new strategic direction.
It currently owns a portfolio of infrastructure assets throughout the region, including towers, satellites, subsea cables, and data centres. Singtel has already begun selling a portion of its Australian subsidiary Optus' towers via auction.
"This strategic refocus is the most significant move in recent years to refocus the business and capitalize on the proliferation of technology and large-scale digitalisation," CEO Yuen Kuan Moon, who took the helm in January, said.
Singtel will realign its core business to increase 5G market share in Singapore and Australia, including through the expansion of digital businesses in adjacent lifestyle sectors and enterprise and cloud solutions.
NCS, its ICT subsidiary, will accelerate growth in the enterprise sector by capitalizing on its public sector services.
(1 dollar equals 1.3251 Singapore dollars)
