SINGTEL, South-east Asia's largest telecommunications company, said it was on the lookout for acquisitions even as it posted a 16 per cent drop in quarterly profits on a strong Singapore dollar that pinched overseas earnings.

The company, which earns 70 per cent of its earnings from overseas, faces increasing competition in Australia and India, and its recent acquisitions in frontier markets such as Pakistan are still not bearing fruit.

Said chief executive Chua Sock Koong: 'We continue to look for good acquisitions. Clearly, we are not in a big rush, given the global uncertainties.'

She added that SingTel was keen to increase its stake in its associate companies if the price was attractive.

SingTel, 55-per-cent held by state investor Temasek Holdings, said fiscal third-quarter net profit fell to $799 million from $952 million a year earlier, mainly because of the Singapore dollar's strength against the currencies of countries where it operates.

The results were above an average forecast of $770 million by four analysts polled by Reuters.

Deutsche Bank said the result was stronger than expected, although loss-making mobile associates in Bangladesh and Pakistan showed 'no particular signs of progress'.

Said Deutsche in a research report: 'Growth in Australia and Singapore remains more robust than we had expected. We remain buyers, particularly as these results demonstrated continued strong operational growth.'

The Singapore dollar rose 23 per cent against the Australian dollar at the end of last December from the levels of a year earlier. It was up 21 per cent versus the Indian rupee and climbed 14 per cent against the Indonesian rupiah, SingTel said.

Singapore's largest listed firm said its October-December underlying net profit, or net profit excluding exceptional items, fell to $838 million from $931 million a year earlier, broadly in line with market expectations.

Ms Chua said the global economic slowdown has started to impact the firm, but added that job cuts were a last resort. -REUTERS