StarHub's net profit sinks 21.3% to $73.1m in Q1

Blame the lacklustre mobile and service revenues.

Singapore telco StarHub reported a 21.3% lower net profit for the quarter ending in March, down to $73.1m from $92.8m recorded last year.

This came even with the slightly higher revenue of $592m, which was badgered by lower service and mobile revenue.

For the quarter, StarHub recorded customer growth for both prepaid and postpaid mobile services. Broadband revenue inched slightly upwards while enterprise fixed revenue grew 3% YoY. In terms of total revenue mix, mobile services continued to be the major contributor at 50%. Pay TV, broadband, enterprise fixed services and sales of equipment contributed 15%, 9%, 17% and 9% respectively.

Here's more from the group:

Mobile revenue was 1% lower at S$296 million compared to the same period a year ago. The prepaid and postpaid customer base grew by 43,000 and 48,000 YoY respectively. Comparing to a year ago, both the prepaid and postpaid ARPUs decreased by S$2 to S$15 and S$67 respectively.

Pay TV revenue was 7% YoY lower at S$88 million due to a 41,000 drop in customer base to 487,000 households. YoY, churn rate was kept low at 0.9% and ARPU remained stable at S$51.

Broadband revenue was slightly higher at S$54 million compared to a year ago, contributed mainly by an increased mix of customers on the higher speed fibre plans. For the quarter ended 31 March 2017, ARPU also saw an uplift of S$1 to S$37. The residential broadband customer base decreased by 3,000 to 470,000 households.

Enterprise Fixed revenue increased 3% YoY to S$99 million. Data & Internet services revenue, which contributed 89% to the Enterprise Fixed revenue mix, was at S$88 million. Voice services revenue decreased 19% to S$11 million mainly due to lower traffic from IDD and international interconnect services.

The number of households with three or more services stood at 338,000 households. This was lower compared to 350,000 households a year ago, primarily due to higher churn in overall TV households.