SingTel backs out of GT bid

SingTel, Southeast Asia's largest phone company, had dropped its bid for Africa's Ghana Telecom, a Reuters report said.

"We decided not to proceed due to issues arising from the process," Lim Chuan Poh, CEO of SingTel's international operations, was quoted by the Reuters report as saying.

"Even if we had proceeded, they did not complete the process, so we did not waste our time... our decision not to proceed was the right one."

SingTel posted a 9.6 % rise in quarterly underlying profit to S$931 million last week, as robust Asian mobile growth offset a margin squeeze at its Australian unit Optus, the Reuters report further said.