PLDT sets record capex of P43B for mobile data
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company has earmarked another P4 billion for the expansion of the company’s mobile Internet coverage and capacity, this according to a report in GMA News.
The report further said the telco has mapped out capital expenditures amounting P43 billion for the whole year, which according to PLDT President and CEO Napoleon Nazareno, is a record capital spending.
PLDT previously earmarked P39 billion to cover capital expenditures, the highest allocation the company has ever made.
Meanwhile, PLDT Chairman Manuel Pangilinan said earnings guidance for the year is P35 billion in net income, down 6.4 percent from P37.4 billion reported in 2014.
The company booked P18.7 billion in net income for the first half of 2015, down 6 percent from P20 billion a year earlier due to a lower core net income as well as net foreign exchange and derivative losses.
Services revenues declined by 2 percent to P81.2 billion, as income from national and international long distance businesses continued to decrease.
In a separate statement, Pangilinan said "the rapid decline in our toll revenues continue to bear down heavily on our medium-term revenue growth, with the onslaught of the Internet causing adverse substitution."
The lower toll revenues translates to P4 billion or P5 billion of annualized impact on the company's full year revenues, Pangilinan added.