Singapore Telecommunications, Southeast Asia’s largest phone company, said fourth-quarter profit rose 12% after revenue increased at its regional businesses and its Optus unit in Australia.

Net income gained to $1.02 billion, or 6.4 cents a share, in the three months ended March 31, from $903 million, or 5.7 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a statement today. That compares with the $1.01 billion median estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

 

SingTel’s fourth straight quarter of profit growth comes as revenue from mobile businesses including Bharti Airtel and PT Telekomunikasi Selular offset lower margins at home. The company is targeting new subscribers through its mio TV service, with broadcasts of World Cup soccer matches starting next month.

 

“Divisionally, it looks in better shape,” said Chris Weston, an institutional dealer at IG Markets in Melbourne.

 

Full-year profit rose 13% to $3.91 billion, according to the statement. The company said it will pay a second-half dividend of 8 Singapore cents a share, compared with 6.9 cents a year earlier.

 

The dividend was “right at the top end,” of analysts’ expectations, Weston said.

 

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 25% to $4.46 billion, bolstered by the strength of the Australian dollar, worth 26% more against the Singapore currency in the past year.

 

SingTel shares fell 1.3% to $2.96 at 3:55 p.m. in Singapore trading. The stock has dropped 4.8% this year compared with a 0.5% decline in the benchmark Straits Times Index.

 

SingTel said yesterday it had 293 million mobile-phone customers at the end of the quarter, or 17% more than a year earlier. In addition to its wholly owned units in Australia and Singapore, it has stakes in operators in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

 

In Singapore, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were little changed at $579 million in the fourth quarter, as increased costs limited the effect of a 13% rise in revenue.

 

The division’s profit margin dropped 4.5 percentage points to 35.3% as SingTel spent more to attract mobile-phone customers and add new content to mio TV.

 

Income at Sydney-based Optus rose 5% to A$610 million ($757 million), helped by the strongest mobile-phone customer growth in five years. In Singapore dollars, profit gained 32%.

 

Optus, Australia’s second-largest phone operator after Telstra Corp., said the pace of decline in fixed-line services has slowed as businesses resume expansion after the global recession.

 

“Fixed-line revenue was down but we have seen some growth in voice traffic,” Optus Chief Executive Officer Paul O’Sullivan said in an interview today. “That’s a good lead indicator that we are seeing corporate Australia stabilize and we are starting to get some growth back.”

 

In the 12 months ending March 2011, SingTel expects Singapore earnings to fall in the “low to mid single-digit” range while Optus profit is forecast to rise at a “mid single- digit” pace.

 

Future earnings from Bharti may be diluted by financing costs for the Indian company’s acquisition of Zain’s assets in Africa for US$9 billion ($12 billion).

 

SingTel’s regional mobile businesses increased earnings 12% to $546 million. Earnings from Telkomsel, Indonesia’s largest mobile-phone company, surged 26% to $205 million on revenue growth from an increased customer base and currency movements.

 

Bharti, India’s largest mobile-phone company, posted an 8.6% rise in earnings to $245 million, helped by fair value gains. SingTel owns 32% of the New Delhi-based company.

 

Chief Executive Officer Chua Sock Koong said it’s “too early” to determine the impact on earnings of a proposal by India’s telecommunications regulator to impose a fee on operators such as Bharti.

 

Earnings from Advanced Info Service Pcl, Thailand’s biggest mobile-phone company, rose 4.6% to $53 million and Globe Telecom Inc., SingTel’s Philippine unit, posted a 23% decline in profit to S$61 million, according to the statement.