PLDT H1 profit grows 2% to P19.7-B

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) — Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) of the Manuel V. Pangilinan group posted a 2% growth in first-half 2013 earnings fueled by higher revenues from its broadband and mobile phone businesses.

In a statement on Wednesday, August 7, PLDT said its end-June net income stood at P19.7 billion versus P19.3 billion in the previous year.

It said aside from higher revenues from its core businesses, a one-time gain from the sale of its outsourcing unit contributed to growth. 

Core net income, minus exceptional items, rose 5% to P19.4 billion from P18.5 billion.

PLDT president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said the company was on track to meeting its full-year core earnings target of P38.3 billion.

“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,” he said.

Service revenues went up 2% to P75.7 billion as revenues from the data and Internet business more than offset the declines from international and national long distance streams. 

Here are other highlights of PLDT’s H1 2013 performance:

• Wireless service revenues rose 2% to P57.7 billion from P56.7 billion, reflecting the continued growth of non-SMS data and modest increases in cellular voice and data revenues
• Total broadband and Internet revenues totaled P12.7 billion, up 14% year-on-year
• National and international long distance, as well as cellular international voice and satellite revenues fell 6% to P15.3 billion from P16.2 billion

The telco had 73.4 million mobile phone subscribers as of end of the first semester, broken down as follows:

• Talk n’ Text – 31.8 million
• Smart – 25.5 million
• Sun Cellular of Digitel – 16.1 million