Singapore Telecommunications (STEL.SI), Southeast Asia’s biggest telecoms firm, reported a slightly lower-than-expected 18% rise in quarterly profit, driven by strong growth in regional mobile customers.

SingTel, which owns Australia’s second largest telecom firm Optus and controls stakes in mobile operators across Asia, has seen relatively slow growth in its mature markets.

In India, SingTel’s 30%-owned Bharti unit (BRTI.BO) saw 39% growth in its number of mobile subscribers but still faces a cloudy outlook due to an intense price war.

The company, 54% owned by Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings (TEM.UL), said it maintained its outlook for low single-digit growth in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for its core markets Singapore and Australia.

SingTel, Singapore’s highest valued firm with a market cap of $46 billion, posted on Tuesday October-December underlying net profit of $990 million, up from $838 million a year ago. This was just below an average forecast of $995 million from a Reuters poll of five analysts.

SingTel saw its total global subscriber base rise 22.5% to 284.75 million as of December from a year ago, helping boost its revenue by 20% to $4.45 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected SingTel to post a full year net profit of $3.8 billion, up from $3.46 billion.

SingTel’s shares have lost around five% so far this year, underperforming Asian rivals and versus a 7% fall in the broader Singapore benchmark index (.FTSTI).