Its cash and cash equivalents stood at S$4.53 billion as at December 31, 2000.
SingTel also saw its turnover for the three-month period ending December hit S$1.23 billion, an increase of two percent year-on-year.
Turnover for the nine-month period ending December stood at S$3.67 billion.
The largest contributor to that was international phone calls with sales of S$913 million (or 25 percent of total turnover), a decline of 25.5 percent compared with the corresponding period last year. SingTel attributed this decline mainly to falling rates, although international call traffic for the nine months grew 17.5 percent to 774 million minutes year-on-year.
The largest growth in turnover for the period came from public data and private network services, which rose 41 percent to S$774 million. This segment accounted for 21 percent of SingTel's total turnover compared with 15 percent in the same period a year ago.
"We have been able to capitalize on the growth opportunities presented by strong demand for data and Internet services," said SingTel president and CEO Lee Hsien Yang at a press briefing.
Specifically, Internet-related services comprising SingNet, SingTel Magix and SingTel Internet Exchange generated revenues of S$181 million while international and local leased circuits brought in S$465 million in the nine months, he said. "This has enabled us to rely less on revenue from international telephone services."
Revenues from mobile communications including paging, aeronautical and maritime services also saw a growth of 6.2 percent to S$676 million. Mobile communications was the third largest revenue generator contributing 18.5 percent to total turnover for the nine months.
Next in line was domestic telephone calls with S$445 million or 12 percent of the total turnover.
The telco did not provide a quarterly breakdown for turnover.
Going forward, Lee expects a slowdown in the economy here and in the region to impact SingTel's performance in the fourth quarter.
However, he added: "Recognizing that sustained future growth of the group will have to come from expansion outside of Singapore, SingTel (will) continue to actively pursue investment and acquisition opportunities in Asia Pacific."
Better-than-expected results, investments
"The results were better than expected. We were looking at a decline this financial year (as international phone calls revenues continue to dip)," said Indosuez WI Carr Securities analyst Alexandra Connor.
Connor believes that the telco's growth prospects will improve as it further invests in overseas companies to tap revenue opportunities in these markets. She noted that SingTel is already on the "right track" with its investments, particularly in India's Bharti Group and City-to-City (C2C), a pan-Asian submarine cable system.
Last August, SingTel paid US$400 million for a 20 percent stake in India's Bharti Telecom and a 30 percent holding in Bharti Televentures. In October, SingTel also announced a new US$650 million venture with Bharti Telecom to construct a submarine cable network linking Singapore, Chennai and Mumbai.
SingTel's partners for C2C, on the other hand, include Japan's KDD Corp and Globe Telecom Inc in the Philippines. The 17,000-kilometer network aims to link Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and China.
For the nine months, SingTel's capital expenditure totalled S$948 million, of which S$544 million was invested in C2C. In fact, overseas investments accounted for 8.1 percent or S$288 million of the group's total pre-tax profit. Among SingTel's ventures were in Belgium's biggest phone company Belgacom SA, Thailand's mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service Pc and Philippines' cell phone company Globe Telecom Inc.
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