(Reuters) - Singapore Telecommunications reported a 22% rise in its third-quarter underlying net profit on Wednesday, boosted by strong contributions from its Australian telecom unit Optus.

Revenue from Australian telecom unit Optus, the company's top revenue generator, rose 3% to S$1.86 billion ($1.39 billion).

The company also benefited from the strong performance of India's Bharti Airtel, which reported a nearly sixfold jump in consolidated third-quarter net profit, helped by a one-time gain and as tariff hikes continued to boost its per-user revenue. 

SingTel holds an effective equity interest of 28.7% in Airtel.

"We remain optimistic about Asia's long-term growth potential and continue to see strong demand for digitalisation and the digital infrastructure that underpins it," Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon, said.

Southeast Asia's largest telecom firm said its underlying net profit for the quarter ended December 31 was S$680 million, compared with S$559 million a year earlier. 

That was largely in line with the Visible Alpha consensus of S$678.8 million.

SingTel added it expects to pay a total ordinary dividend of around 16.5 Singapore cents per share and forecasts a total capital expenditure of around S$2.8 billion for fiscal 2025.

($1 = 1.3418 Singapore dollars)