SINGAPORE, Feb 12 ― Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, Southeast Asia’s largest phone company, posted an 11 per cent rise in third-quarter profit on mobile growth at Australian unit Optus and improved earnings at Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Net income increased to S$970 million (RM2.5 billion) in the quarter ended December from S$872 million a year earlier, the company said today. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization were S$1.23 billion, compared with the S$1.25 billion median estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Stakes in regional wireless carriers including in Thailand and Indonesia are helping SingTel ride out slowing growth in its home market. Earnings more than doubled last quarter at Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest wireless carrier, while Optus took on Telstra Corp’s dominant Australian position with cheaper mobile data plans, according to Citigroup Inc.

“Optus is getting some momentum in post-paid mobile subscriber numbers,” Daniel Mueller, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Sydney, said by phone before the results. “‘They’re in a very dominant position with stable, predictable earnings ― they’re almost bond-market like.”

Earnings before items in the quarter rose S$970 million from S$910 million a year earlier, it said.

Shares of SingTel closed at S$4.14 in the city-state yesterday, marking an 18 percent jump over the past year that’s outstripped the 14 percent gain in the Straits Times Index.

SingTel gets revenue from operations in its home market and Australia and dividends from stakes in emerging-market carriers including Indonesia’s PT Telekomunikasi Selular, Bharti Airtel, and Thailand’s Advanced Info Service Pcl.

The Singapore dollar weakened against all the three emerging countries’ currencies in the quarter compared to a year earlier, increasing the value of earnings from the affiliates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It strengthened against the Australian dollar, reducing the value of Optus’s profits.

Optus added 96,000 mobile customers in the quarter and average revenue per user increased 5 percent. Optus earnings gained 6 percent with a 12 percent surge in data revenue, the company said today. ― Bloomberg