Airtel Africa Q2 results (Jul-Sep 2021): Net profit more than doubles to US$192 million

Airtel&rsquo s Africa business reported a net profit of $192 million in the fiscal second quarter, which more than doubled year-on-year (YoY) and rose over 35 per cent sequentially. The profit growth was on the back of a sharp reduction in finance costs coupled with strong growth in data and mobile money revenues.

Revenue for the quarter to September rose 20 per cent on-year and 4.31 per cent sequentially to $1.16 billion, the company said on Thursday.

Accordingly, Airtel Africa&rsquo s profit for the first half ended September 2021 more than doubled on-year to $335 million, while revenue for the same period rose 25 per cent YoY to $2.27 billion.
 

  Singtel said its cyber security arm Trustwave has divested SecureTrust to Sysnet Global Solutions.

  Singtel on Monday (Oct 25) announced that its cyber security arm Trustwave has divested SecureTrust, its payment card industry compliance business, to Sysnet Global Solutions, for a cash consideration of US$80 million (S$107.8 million).

 

In a bourse filing the same day, the telco highlighted that the sale comes as part of Singtel' s strategic review of its digital businesses announced in May to optimise the group' s resource allocation and reposition these assets for growth.

 

Singtel added that certain Trustwave assets that are complementary to the group' s core telecommunications and system integration business in Asia-Pacific will move into Singtel and its subsidiaries NCS and Optus.

 

With this realignment, Singtel' s cyber security business will be " one of the largest" in the Asia-Pacific, with revenue of more than $350 million, the filing noted.

 

Singtel group chief executive Yuen Kuan Moon pointed out that the divestment is the first step in an extensive review of the Trustwave business and aims to " reposition it for growth" .

 

" With enterprises pivoting fast to hybrid, multi-cloud environments, the cyberthreat landscape has changed considerably and the need for a focused set of services centred on managed threat detection and response has grown," he said.

 

" Trustwave can now better meet those needs by concentrating on its core offerings of managed detection and response, managed security services and consulting services to help businesses reduce complexity and cyber risk in their environments."

 

Trustwave chief executive Eric Harmon said the firm is rapidly evolving to effectively combat new and complex threat actors around the world.

 

" These business shifts allow us to focus on and accelerate our momentum as an industry leader in managed detection and response, world-class professional services and data protection," he said.