SingTel Q4 net profit down 17 pct, beats forecasts

SINGAPORE, May 14 (Reuters) - SingTel (STEL.SI), Southeast Asia's largest telecommunication company, reported on Thursday quarterly profit fell a better-than-expected 17 percent, thanks to "resilient" Singapore and Australian operations.

The company, 55 percent-held by state investor Temasek [TEM.UL], logged January-March attributable net profit of S$903 million compared to S$1.09 billion a year ago. The earnings were above analysts' forecasts for S$836.5 million by Reuters Estimates.

SingTel, Singapore's biggest listed firm with a market capitalisation of nearly $30 billion, booked a quarterly underlying net profit before goodwill and exceptionals of S$959 million, compared to S$968 million a year ago. Facing a saturated domestic market of just 4.6 million people, SingTel has spent S$18 billion in the past few years to capture a slice of the market in high-growth Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, and in the bigger Australian market. The company derives about three quarters of its sales and two third of its pretax earnings from operations outside Singapore.

SingTel shares fell nearly 1 percent in January-March versus a 3.5 percent fall in the broader Straits Times index .FTSTI. (Reporting by Harry Suhartono; Editing by Anshuman Daga and Neil Chatterjee)