Singapore-based StarHub booked continued weakness in its mobile business in Q3, with service revenue down due to falling prepaid ARPU and subscribers, but its enterprise business drove top-line growth.

Net profit dropped 5.1 per cent year-on-year to SGD42.2 million ($31.3 million), with total revenue up 5.6 per cent to SGD517.2 million.

A move to postpone an IT transformation programme, resulting in lower opex, prompted the operator to raise its EBITDA margin forecast to at least 26 per cent from the 24 per cent to 26 per cent range. Service revenue for 2021 is expected to be stable.

In a statement, CEO Nikhil Eapen said it exceeded its initial cost saving target by 30 per cent, “giving us confidence to upgrade our service EBITDA margin guidance”.

Price pressure
Mobile service revenue dipped marginally (0.6 per cent) to SGD133.3 million, with post-paid ARPU flat at SGD29 and prepaid ARPU down 2.5 per cent to SGD12.

Post-paid subs were stable at 1.46 million, while prepaid subs fell 12.9 per cent to 458,000. Average data usage increased 12.3 per cent to 12.8GB a month.

Broadband revenue grew 9.5 per cent SGD49.8 million and IPTV sales dropped 4.6 per cent to SG45 million. Its enterprise business recorded 17.3 per cent growth to SGD190 million, with cybersecurity revenue surging 73.1 per cent to SGD79.3 million and accounting for 37.3 per cent total B2B sales.

StarHub also announced it will acquire 60 per cent stakes in HKBN’s ICT units in Singapore and Malaysia for SGD15 million to strengthen its regional enterprise capabilities.

Eapen said it intends to accelerate its enterprise growth by “deepening our capabilities in Singapore as well as extending these enterprise digital services capabilities across the region”. He said it also looks forward to working with HKBN to open up business opportunities for both companies in the delivery of bundled connectivity and ICT services.