PLDT on track to hit core income target
PLDT Inc. is on track to meet the P21.5-billion guidance this year even as recurring core income declined 26 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, with recovery seen in the succeeding quarters.
In a press briefing yesterday, PLDT chief financial officer Annabelle Chua said the recurring core income, which declined to P5.3 billion in the first quarter from P7.2 billion in the same period last year, is tracking well with the P21.5-billion guidance for the year.
Recurring core income was down yearon-year in the first quarter as consolidated service revenues slid seven percent to P35.6 billion this year from P38.2 billion in the same period a year ago. The home and enterprise segments
From B1 continued to be the fastest growing segments.
Revenue from the home business grew 12 percent to P7.8 billion in the first quarter from a year ago, while income from the enterprise segment went up 13 percent to P8.5 billion.
Home subscribers reached 3.77 million in the first quarter, up from 3.43 million in the same period last year.
Wireless continued to be a challenging business for PLDT, as revenues from the segment fell 18 percent to P14.8 billion in the first quarter from P18 billion in the same period a year ago.
PLDT’s wireless subscribers reached 63.1 million in the first quarter, down from 68.2 million in the same period last year.
While recurring core income posted a year-on-year drop in the first quarter, it rose 46 percent compared to the P3.6 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
“As we indicated earlier, our focus since the latter part of 2016 has been to stabilize the overall business, which involves stemming the decline of revenues and profitability in the wireless consumer segment, sustaining the upward momentum in the home and enterprise businesses and laying the ground for recovery through the digital transformation of our businesses. We’ve produced encouraging results in the first quarter this year, thanks to the continued strong growth posted by our home and enterprise businesses, whilst our wireless consumer group redoubled efforts to break the negative momentum and hold the line,” PLDT chairman and chief executive officer Manuel Pangilinan said.
For the second until the fourth quarter, Pangilinan said the aim is to achieve recurring core income at a level higher than P5 billion for each quarter to beat the performance in the same quarters last year.
“We have to make those numbers work such that we will report at least P21.5 billion in core income this year,” Pangilinan said.
Last year, PLDT’s recurring core income reached P20.2 billion.