UPDATE 1-SingTel profit beats forecast on Asia mobile growth

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SINGAPORE, May 14 (Reuters) - Singapore Telecommunications (STEL.SI: Quote, Profile, Research), Southeast Asia's largest phone company, beat market expectations with a 9.2 percent rise in quarterly profit due to rapid mobile user growth in Asia.

State-controlled SingTel, which derives about three quarters of its sales and two-thirds of pretax earnings from operations outside Singapore, kept its target of delivering double-digit underlying earnings growth over the medium term.

But it raised its dividend payout ratio to 45-60 percent of underlying net profit, from 40-50 percent.

"The environment remains challenging with the outlook for the global economy looking more uncertain," Chief Executive Chua Sock Koong said, adding that the group's fundamentals remained strong.

Singapore's largest listed firm said fourth-quarter attributable net profit was S$1.09 billion ($796 million) versus S$989 million last year, bringing full-year 2007/08 net profit to S$3.96 billion, up 4.8 percent.

The company made underlying net profit before goodwill and exceptionals of S$968 million in the January-March quarter, compared with S$886 million in the year-ago period.

This was above an average net profit forecast of S$856.6 million from 14 analysts polled by Reuters.

Operating revenue rose 11 percent to S$3.76 billion.