(Reuters) -Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) on Wednesday reported a 42% slump in its first-half net profit due to the absence of a S$1.2 billion ($896.59 million) gain it had logged through the merger of Telkomsel a year earlier.

Southeast Asia's largest telecom firm also said it expects its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to grow by low double digits for fiscal 2025.

Last year, Telkomsel, the Indonesian associate of SingTel, agreed to merge with its parent's IndiHome broadband arm to expand into Indonesia's fixed broadband market.

The firm's top boss shed some light on SingTel's progress with developing revenue streams to harness artificial intelligence and data centres.

"Both NCS and Nxera (SingTel's data centre brand) have a critical role to play in advancing AI adoption in the region and are continuing to invest in AI infrastructure and capabilities to better serve enterprise and governments," the group's Chief Executive Officer Yuen Kuan Moon said.

"We will continue scaling NCS and building out Nxera's data centres which will commence operations from mid-2025 to meet increasing demand," Moon added.

SingTel's Australian unit Optus, currently embroiled in a legal battle with the country's competition watchdog, reported interim operating revenue of A$4.02 billion ($2.62 billion), in line with A$4.02 billion reported a year ago.

The company said net profit for the six months ended Sept. 30 was S$1.23 billion, as compared to S$2.14 billion last year and missing a Visible Alpha estimate of S$1.37 billion. 

The company declared an interim dividend of 7 Singapore cents per share, higher than the 5.2 Singapore cents per share declared a year earlier.

($1 = 1.3384 Singapore dollars)

($1 = 1.5321 Australian dollars)