PLDT clears P19.7 B in H1

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) reported yesterday a two percent increase in its first half net income on the back of higher revenues as well as gain from the sale of subsidiaries.

PLDT president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno said the company’s net income amounted to P19.7 billion in the first six months of the year or P400 million higher than the previous year’s P19.3 billion.

Nazareno attributed the increase to the P1 billion expansion in core net income, the P2 billion gain from the sale of its business process outsourcing (BPO) arm SPI Global Holdings Inc. as well as the P1.8 billion gain from higher foreign exchange and derivative net losses.

“The increase was a result of the combined impact of higher core income, the gain from the sale of the BPO business, higher foreign exchange and derivative losses, and the retroactive effect of the adoption of revised Philippine Accounting System,” he said.

He pointed out that the company’s core net income grew five percent to P19.4 billion from P18.4 billion due to higher EBITDA and lower depreciation.

The PLDT chief said the company is sticking to its core net income target of P38.3 billion this year from P37.3 billion last year.

“PLDT anticipates a return to growth in 2013 with core net income for the year expected to grow to P38.3 billion. We affirm our guidance of P38.3 billion for core net income this year,” Nazareno stressed.

He also reported that PLDT’s consolidated service revenues went up by two percent to P75.7 billion in the first half of the year from P74.2 billion in the same period last year as increases in revenues from the growing businesses outpaced declines in legacy revenues.

Data showed that the revenues from its cellular short messaging system (SMS), domestic call, and local exchange carrier (LEC) businesses inched up by one percent to P48.9 billion from P48.5 billion and accounted for 60 percent of total revenues while non-SMS revenues jumped 13 percent to P16.9 billion for a share of 21 percent.

On the other hand, national long distance as well as international long distance, cellular international voice and satellite revenues dipped six percent to P15.3 billion from P16.2 billion and accounted for 19 percent of total revenues.

PLDT’s broadband service revenues jumped 13 percent to P16.9 billion from P14.9 billion with mobile Internet revenues leading the pack with a 49 percent growth followed by wireless broadband with 11 percent and DSL with seven percent.

Nazareno said the PLDT Group’s free cash flow stood at $20.7 billion in the first half of the year as it spent P4.8 billion of the programmed P29 billion capital expenditures for 2013.