PLDT net income more than doubles

PLDT Inc. on Thursday reported a 2023 net income of P26.82 billion, up 154 percent from the previous year’s P10.74 billion and largely attributed to strong revenue growth from its business units coupled with reduced capital spending and asset writedowns.

Unaudited consolidated financial results for 2023 also showed that telco had returned to the profit level last seen in 2021, when net income hit P26.7 billion.

“PLDT is aiming not just for higher profits but to return PLDT and Smart to their premier positions, where they rightfully belong,” company Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said in a statement.

Core income, excluding the impact of asset sales and Maya Innovations Holdings (formerly Voyager Innovations Holdings), reached P34.30 billion, up 3 percent or an increase of P1 billion from 2022, PLDT said.

This was attributed to the lesser impact of capital expenditures (capex) and the writedown of several “obsolete” assets in 2022, higher revenues of business units, and lower operating expenditures.

“One must remember that 2022 was an abnormal year where we had a huge write-down of assets. ... If a technology is obsolete, you have to write it down. It is part of the clean-up,” PLDT Chief Financial Officer Danny Yu said.

Service revenues rose 1 percent to P191.4 billion as business units registered earnings growth, while the Home segment posted revenues of P60.4 billion, boosted by growth in fiber-only service revenues.

Enterprise posted net service revenues of P47.10 billion, driven by an expansion in its information and communications technology (ICT) business and core data revenues, while the Individual Wireless segment saw sales grow 2 percent to P81.8 billion on higher mobile data revenues.

PLDT’s total fiber footprint across the country expanded to over 1.1 million kilometers of cable in 2023.

Capex for 2023 amounted to P85.1 billion, down from P96.8 billion in 2022.

For 2024, PLDT’s capex is anticipated to be around P75 to P78 billion, and will mostly be used for its cell sites and the upgrade of its base transceiver stations to LTE/5G, among other things.

In another development, Pangilinan told reporters that PLDT was in discussions with foreign buyers for the acquisition of some of ePLDT’s data centers.

“The data centers are in discussion for potential buyers but (for now), we do not know where that is headed. The amount is confidential, but I think there will be significant cash inflow and gains, and I think we will mostly use the proceeds from that sale to significantly reduce our debt,” he said.

“We have 11 (data centers), and I think all of them will be included (in the sale). This deal has been in the works [for some time]. I think we will be able to close this within the year,” he added.

Looking ahead, the telco expects consolidated service revenues to register mid-single-digit growth this year, while telco core income is anticipated to be above P35 billion.

PLDT shares fell by P12 or 0.93 percent to P1,278.00 each on Thursday amid a 0.7-percent decline in the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.