THE SINGTEL GROUP'S RESULTS FOR THE QUARTER ENDED 30 JUNE

• Operating revenue up 6.4% to S$3.21 billion
• Underlying net profit up 9.5% to S$762 million
• Earnings per share increased 22.2%

Singapore, 4 August 2005 -- Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) today announced its unaudited results for the first quarter ended 30 June 2005. Highlights

Group During the quarter, Group revenue increased by 6.4 per cent to S$3.21 billion. Operational EBITDA was stable while EBITDA increased 6.1 per cent to S$1.60 billion. Underlying net profit after tax increased 9.5 per cent to S$762 million, mainly driven by robust growth from its overseas associates. Associates contributed 36 per cent or S$273 million of the Group's post-tax profits with regional mobile accounting for 94 per cent or S$257 million. Earnings per share increased by 22 per cent as compared to the same period last year, reflecting a 6.8 per cent reduction in average shares on issue, following the completion of the capital reduction exercise. Free cash flow for the quarter is S$594 million, with S$409 million from SingTel and S$185 million from Optus. 1 Underlying net profit is defined as net profit before exceptionals and exchange differences on loan to Optus, net of hedging. Mr Lee Hsien Yang, SingTel's President and CEO, said: "Reflecting the success of the Group's international expansion strategy, our overseas investments contributed 75 per cent of Group's revenue and 68 per cent of EBITDA. "In particular, we are pleased with the profitable regional mobile business. Bharti and Telkomsel, both mobile leaders in their respective markets, continue to contribute strongly to the Group's earnings growth. In keeping with our strategy to raise our stake in the mobile associates, we increased our shareholding in Bharti to 31 per cent." He added: "After a successful turnaround in recent years, Optus is now entering a new phase of investment to deliver long-term improvements in revenue and margin growth. It continues to outperform the industry, gaining market share in the fixed line business and aggressively defending its share of the mobile segment in a very competitive Australian market.

"In Singapore, our business continues to generate robust cash flows, despite continued declines in our direct exchange line revenues. SingTel remains committed to providing quality products and services at competitive prices to ensure that we continue to do well in the mature Singapore market." SingTel SingTel's revenue for the quarter was flat at S$995 million. Operational EBITDA margin was lower at 48 per cent partly due to an increasing proportion of revenue from lower margin IT services. Operational expenses increased by 7.2 per cent to S$525 million. This was due partly to increased rental expenses for the current quarter following the divestment of properties and lower staff costs in the previous corresponding quarter as a result of a one-off accounting adjustment relating to the performance share plan. Data & Internet revenue grew modestly to S$300 million for the first quarter. Revenue increased for local leased circuits, managed services and broadband. This was offset by a decline in international leased circuit revenue. The decline reflected a higher proportion of customers moving to higher bandwidth circuits, where average prices were lower. Broadband revenue grew 10 per cent to S$55 million. With 311,000 lines, SingTel leads the market with a 55 per cent share. It continues to position itself as the broadband market leader by offering a comprehensive range of broadband services to meet the diverse needs of its customers.

Revenue from mobile communications was flat. Year on year, the number of subscribers grew 3.4 per cent to 1.55 million. However, compared to the preceding quarter, there was a net attrition of 13,000 subscribers, arising from a reduction of 22,000 prepaid mobile subscribers, partially offset by an increase of 9,000 postpaid mobile subscribers. Currently, over 20,000 are 3G subscribers. SingTel's postpaid market share remains stable at 43 per cent. Its customer churn and data usage continue to be among the best-in-class with postpaid churn of 1.2 per cent and data usage at 21 per cent of mobile revenue. Although revenue from the prepaid segment accounts for less than 10 per cent of SingTel's mobile revenue in Singapore, it is a growing segment, and SingTel has introduced new offerings to further enhance competitiveness. International telephone revenue fell 9.7 per cent to S$152 million due mainly to lower volume of international outgoing minutes, which declined 7.5 per cent compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Margins declined from 70 per cent to 67 per cent year on year. Revenue from IT & engineering rose 6.4 per cent to S$145 million. Compared to the preceding quarter, IT services fell 32 per cent. This was mainly due to the seasonal peak in local and overseas businesses. NCS group revenue was generated from a broad base. There were major wins by NCS in the government, defence, tourism and financial services sectors for systems integration, professional services, and facilities and maintenance applications. For the current quarter, revenue from national telephone declined 6.6 per cent from a year ago to S$125 million. DEL rental revenue fell by 1.1 per cent, reflecting a trend of residential customers giving up the second line as broadband penetration increased. This led to a net decline of 30,000 DEL lines or 1.6 per cent from a year ago. Similarly, as more customers migrated from dial-up to broadband Internet service, DEL traffic fell 15 per cent year on year. Operating expenses increased 7.2 per cent or S$35 million compared to the same quarter last year due largely to higher staff costs and traffic expenses. On a comparable basis, when the one-off adjustment for the reduction in performance share cost was excluded, operating expenses rose at a lower rate of 5.2 per cent or S$26 million.

As at 30 June 2005, SingTel's headcount fell by 1.2 per cent or 125 to 10,036 from a year ago. Underlying staff costs increased by 5.6 per cent due to higher performance share expenses and retrenchment costs. Traffic expenses rose 7.4 per cent mainly due to higher lease charges incurred. This was in line with the rise in volume of bandwidth sold and increased sales of end-to-end corporate data services.

Cash capital expenditure for the quarter was S$79 million, a decrease of 6.6 per cent year on year, or representing eight per cent of revenue. SingTel Optus Optus had a solid start to the 2006 financial year in a market impacted by increasing levels of price competition, particularly in the mobile segment. For the quarter to 30 June 2005, revenue grew by 4.8 per cent to A$1,742 million while operational EBITDA was up 2.1 per cent to A$516 million. Net profit after tax declined marginally to A$150 million with EBITDA margin decreasing to 29.7 per cent. Cash capital expenditure in the quarter increased by 38 per cent to A$257 million as the 3G roll out continued in preparation for launch in Sydney and Melbourne later this year, resulting in free cash flow declining by 42 per cent to A$144 million. Mr Paul O'Sullivan, Optus Chief Executive, said the results showed Optus continuing to outperform the industry but also reflected the intense price competition across the telecommunications industry."

This quarter, revenue and EBITDA were impacted by increasing levels of competition especially in the mobile and fixed business markets across the industry. "In this intensely competitive time, we have shown readiness to match competitors and to keep investing to maintain scale and grow market share. "

This quarter, we moved aggressively to defend our mobile market share. We added 105,000 new mobile subscribers in the quarter and re-contracted a large number of existing customers. We increased our broadband customer base to over 400,000 customers and grew market share in the corporate business segment. "Optus is investing strongly in the next waves of industry growth as we execute on our strategies in our mobile and fixed line businesses," Mr O'Sullivan said. This quarter, Optus Mobile contributed 56 per cent of revenue growth with the fixed line divisions contributing 44 per cent. Both Optus Mobile and Optus Business & Wholesale EBITDA increased by more than 3 per cent despite aggressive price competition. Consumer & Multimedia's EBITDA decreased with continuing investment in off-net broadband customer acquisition in advance of an anticipated network build. For Optus Mobile, revenue grew by 5.0 per cent in the quarter and EBITDA grew by 3.5 per cent resulting in margins being slightly lower than the same period last year.

Overall growth was negatively impacted by a 14 per cent reduction in mobile termination rates effective 1 January 2005. Mobile outgoing and equipment revenues grew by 6.4 per cent while incoming revenue was flat due to the reduced mobile termination rates. The 5.3 per cent growth in mobile subscribers takes the total customer base to 6.026 million. In the quarter, Optus Mobile grew its share in business mobile with revenue in this segment up 5.3 per cent. It continued to stimulate data revenues which increased to 17 per cent of ARPU. During the quarter, Optus invested some A$30 million more in subscriber acquisition costs than in the preceding quarter to acquire and retain high-value customers and aggressive, new postpaid and prepaid plans were introduced to ensure Optus maintained its strong market position. Churn was stable in the quarter. Approximately 7 per cent of the total postpaid customer base are now using capped plans. Together with lower termination rates, this has impacted postpaid ARPU which declined by 5.4 per cent. Optus Business & Wholesale continued to gain market share in what remains a very price competitive market. Combined revenues grew by 8.1 per cent to A$426 million. Optus Business revenue, including Uecomm, increased by 14 per cent. Wholesale revenue declined by 3.1 per cent after the completion of some one-off low margin transit business. Data and IP revenue including Uecomm grew by 25 per cent to A$101 million, demonstrating growing market share. Business & Wholesale combined EBITDA grew by 3.1 per cent to A$108 million. Optus Business continued to win key customer bids including: Holden; Orica; Macquarie Regional Radioworks; Victorian Department of Education and Training; and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Optus Consumer & Multimedia (CMM) is focused on building a strong position in the rapidly growing broadband market. CMM is steadily building scale in off-net voice and broadband and the bundling rate is increasing. Broadband revenue grew by 63 per cent in the first quarter and Optus now has 406,000 broadband customers. An alliance with ninemsn will see Optus deliver integrated content and services across broadband and 3G platforms. This will ensure that Optus will continue to attract high value broadband users.

Overall CMM revenue was flat with strong broadband growth offsetting declines in traditional products. Local call resale customers grew by 6.7 per cent, but after usage declines, off-net fixed voice revenues fell by 2.2 per cent. Dial-up Internet revenues declined 26 per cent, reflecting Optus' success in migrating customers to broadband. Optus Television revenues declined by 11 per cent but the recently announced deal with Foxtel will give Optus a new platform to promote a digital television service. In the June quarter, EBITDA margin declined slightly to 13 per cent reflecting the continuing investment in off-net (or DSL) broadband growth. Once it has sufficient certainty from its regulatory and commercial negotiations, Optus plans to use unbundled local loop copper to build its own network for broadband and voice services. This has the potential to improve off-net margins after an initial phase of start-up costs. Associated companies SingTel's associated companies continued to deliver very strong earnings and dividends. In the current quarter, associates contributed S$273 million to the Group's bottom line, an increase of 23 per cent. Regional mobile was the main driver contributing S$257 million or 94 per cent. Bharti and Telkomsel continued to contribute strongly to the earnings growth. The Group received significantly higher dividends of S$180 million. This included the first S$100 million instalment of dividend from Telkomsel which was paid earlier by one quarter compared to the previous financial year. The Group's share of pre-tax ordinary earnings from its four regional mobile associates increased 30 per cent to S$355 million. Contributors to Group earnings included Telkomsel (S$173 million, +48 per cent) and Bharti (S$66 million, +91 per cent). Advanced Info Service contributed S$76 million, a decline of 2.2 per cent as a result of intense competition in the Thai market. Globe Telecom's contribution was S$41 million, declining 9.9 per cent as staff and marketing expenses increased in the competitive Filipino market. Year on year, the Group's regional mobile subscriber base grew 36 per cent to 71 million subscribers, the largest in Asia outside China. As at 30 June 2005, excluding SingTel and Optus, the five2 regional associates' combined mobile subscriber base grew 41 per cent year on year to over 63 million. During the current quarter, about six million subscribers were added, mainly from Bharti and Telkomsel. Cash flow and balance sheet The Group continues to adopt a very disciplined approach to capital management while retaining flexibility for further investments. The Group's free cash flow3 decreased 12 per cent to S$594 million, due mainly to a 30 per cent increase in capital expenditure to S$407 million and partially offset by an increase in dividends of S$180 million received from associates. In the same quarter last year, S$2.33 billion was received from the divestment of Belgacom.

Net debt was S$7.25 billion as at 30 June 2005. A payout of S$1.73 billion in net cash is expected in the second quarter for the 2005 ordinary and special dividends. Net debt was 1.1 times of EBITDA and the EBITDA interest cover was 15 times. These ratios are comfortably within the leverage commitments made by SingTel to its bond investors. Following the introduction of a new rating methodology, Moody's upgraded the ratings of SingTel (from A1 to Aa2) and Optus (from A2 to Aa3) by two notches on 14 July 2005. Compared with Standard & Poor's current A+ rating, SingTel would be two notches higher while Optus would be one notch higher. 2 AIS, Bharti, Globe, PBTL (Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited) and Telkomsel. 3 Free cash flow refers to cash flow from operating activities less cash capex. At the last quarter results, SingTel announced a proposal to pay S$2.16 billion final gross dividends for financial year 2005. This consists of an ordinary and special dividend of 8.0 cents and 5.0 cents per share respectively. Shareholders have approved the proposals at the recent Annual General Meeting. Outlook There have been no significant changes to the guidance issued with the results for the financial year ended 31 March 2005. The Group will next update its guidance outlook when it announces its half-year results. Please refer to the Group's Management Discussion and Analysis document for a full commentary on the Group's results for the quarter.