UPDATE 2-SingTel eyes opportunities in Africa to boost growth

* Eyes untapped markets in Africa

* Q2 underlying net profit S$952 mln; consensus S$956 mln

* Singapore, Australia EBITDA to grow at low-single-digit

* Stock up 1 pct; gains 16 pct in 2009, lags market (Recasts lead with strategy, details on margins)

By Harry Suhartono

SINGAPORE, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Singapore Telecommunications, Southeast Asia's top telecom firm, plans to muscle into the fast-growing markets of Africa to grow further after it gave a cautious outlook for its core Singapore and Australian markets.

SingTel said on Wednesday it would either look at options in Africa on its own or support its partners such as Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO) in their quest for telecom assets.

SingTel had supported a bid by India's Bharti Airtel to buy South Africa's MTN (MTNJ.J), a deal that collapsed in October on political instead of commercial issues. [ID:nLU010353]

"Africa is a market in the emerging mobile space, that is definitely worth our interest, and we are always talking to our associates," SingTel CEO Chua Sock Koong told a news conference.

Facing a domestic market of 5 million people where virtually everyone has a mobile phone, SingTel has spent S$18 billion in recent years buying stakes in mobile operators in high-growth Asian countries such as India, Indonesia and in the bigger Australian market.

The city-state's largest listed company with a market value of about $34 billion said its EBITDA in Singapore and Australia will expand at a low single-digit pace.

Singtel reported its highest underlying net profit since March 2008 but the numbers were below market estimates.

Lim Chuan Poh, SingTel's head for international operations, said the company is also looking at Vietnam, which he described as an untapped emerging telecom market.

Sintel, around 55 percent-owned by state investor Temasek [TEM.UL], posted July-September underlying net profit before goodwill and exceptionals of S$952 million ($685.9 million) compared with an average forecast of S$956 million in a Reuters survey of five analysts.

The quarterly underlying net profit was 18.8 percent higher than S$801 million reported a year ago.

Singapore and Australia accounted for 54 percent of the group's EBITDA -- earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation -- in the second quarter.