SingTel – BT

SingTel sees smaller growth in revenue

(SINGAPORE) Singapore Telecommunications, South-east Asia’s largest telco, said yesterday that it expects revenue in the fiscal year ending March 2008 will grow at a single-digit rate and that free cashflow will decline slightly.

In a presentation posted on the stock exchange, chief executive Chua Sock Koong said that revenue at SingTel’s Australian unit Optus would grow between 2.5 and 3 per cent while earnings contribution from regional mobile firms would grow at double-digit rates.

The company also has set a target of double-digit growth for underlying earnings in the medium-term, according to the presentation, which will be delivered at a CLSA conference in Hong Kong today.

Last month the company said it expected revenues to grow by more than 5 per cent in 2008, driven by rising mobile phone and broadband subscriptions. — Reuters