Singtel's first-half net profit rises 23% YoY to $1.17b

The company's partial divestment of its stake in Airtel helped boost its profit.

Singtel's net exceptional gain from the partial divestment of its stake in Airtel pushed its first-half net profit up by 23% YoY to $1.17b.

According to Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon, the company raised $2.5b from partially divesting its stake in Airtel. the partial divestment also allowed the company to recycle some $6 billion in the past 18 months.

The company said margin improvements in its core telco business also helped boost its income. 

"There was a major rebound in our core business as the resumption in travel lifted roaming revenues across both our consumer and enterprise businesses,"  Yuen said.

"We’ve also reduced our net debt by nearly a third from a year ago to buttress our balance sheet in these uncertain times. As a testament to our proven asset recycling model, we are sharing the benefits by returning excess cash to our shareholders after setting aside capital for our growth initiatives,” he added.

Given the bigger profit, the board approved an interim ordinary dividend of $0.046 per share for H122, totalling S$760 million. 

The distributable income represents 76% of Singtel's underlying net profit in H122 of $1.01b.