San Miguel telecom unit cuts losses 19% in 9 mos

MANILA, Philippines - Publicly-listed Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc., the telecommunications arm of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), managed to slash its net loss by 19 percent in the first nine months of the year on the back of lower costs and expenses.

In a report to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Liberty reported that it booked a net loss of P881.95 million from January to September or P221 million lower compared to the net loss of P1.09 billion a year ago.

Costs and expenses dropped 27.1 percent to P1.05 billion in the first nine months of the year from P1.44 billion in the same period last year due to lower depreciation and amortization, lower rental and utilities, lower personnel costs, lower repair and maintenance costs, among others.

 â€œIn more recent period, the group incurred lesser selling expenses, maintenance expense and provisions for impairment losses on receivables,” Liberty said.

Selling costs plunged by P125.4 million due to minimal marketing and selling activities while personnel costs declined by P58.1 million as the company reduced its workforce by 78 percent.

Repairs and maintenance cost went down P41.5 million on the back of lower network and vehicles maintenance expenses while rental and utilities decreased by P4.9 million due to the termination of various sites.

The company’s revenues likewise declined by 19 percent to P357.98 million from P444.26 million due to lower average per unit and the substantial decline in subscribers of postpaid and prepaid Wimax broadband.

In the third quarter alone, losses of Liberty plunged 33.3 percent to P220.69 million from P331.1 million in the same quarter last year as expenses plunged 99 percent to P275.7 million from P433.3 million.

During the quarter, revenues likewise dropped 31.3 percent to P102.5 million from P149.2 million.

In the course of building its subscriber base, Liberty incurred losses, further increasing its deficit to P8.3 billion but major shareholders remained fully committed to support the company’s operations.

Liberty has converted into equity P7.6 billion worth of advances in wholly-owned subsidiary wi-Tribe Telecoms Inc.