SingTel suffers 17% earnings drop as Asian demand slows
Singapore Telecommunications warned yesterday that earnings could fall this year because of slowing demand in neighbouring Asian markets, which provide more than two-thirds of its sales and profits.
"If you look at the economic data that continues to be released, we're still seeing a downtrend," said Chua Sock Koong, the SingTel chief executive. SingTel said it was still looking at foreign acquisitions, with Pakistan as a possible area of growth because of industry consolidation. It owns 30 per cent of Pakistan's Warid Telecom.
South-east Asia's largest telecoms group said net earnings fell 17.3 per cent to S$903m (US$616m) in the January-March period and declined by 12.9 per cent to S$3.96bn for the full fiscal year ending March 31.
