MANILA – The numbers are still down for PLDT but the company is choosing to see its glass as half-full.
The telco reported a 20 percent year-on-year drop in first quarter earnings, from P6.22 billion in the first quarter of 2016 to P4.95 billion this year, as lower wireless revenues weighed on its Q1 results.
Still, officials claimed that better days were ahead as the decline in revenues had moderated to just 1 percent
from the fourth quarter of last year.
According to the company’s chief finance officer Anabelle Chua, “the negative momentum of the topline was arrested in Q1 this year, so our results in the first quarter are quite encouraging, as this reflect the results of our focus, since the latter part of 2016, to stabilize the overall business.” This, she elaborated, “really involved stemming the decline of revenues and profitability in the wireless consumer segment while sustaining the upward momentum in the home and enterprise business in 2016.”
Officials are now banking on fixed lines to drive growth, describing gains in this segment as part of ongoing industry changes.
One bright spot for PLDT was the addition of 400,000 mobile subscribers after two quarters of losses: from 68.2 million and 62.8 million in the first and fourth quarters of 2016, the number of mobile subscriber rose to 63.1 million in the first quarter of 2017.
Officials said the wireless business was under sustained pressure from thinning margins brought about by market saturation and stiff competition.
“If we look at the wireless business it’s going to be a challenged business pillar for the medium term,” observed Eric Alberto, PLDT chief revenue officer.
Officials said the future would now be powered by the home and enterprise segment, which now provides 46 percent of service revenues
compared to 41 percent for mobile.
With home broadband subscriptions at less than 4 million out of the 10 million or so households able to afford data plans, officials said this segment represented a bright spot for PLDT.
“Where the growth came from is really the fixed-line business by a mile,” said PLDT Chair and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan. “For now we are in this sort of, to use the government’s phrase, the golden age of fixed.”
Pangilinan said the company could post a rebound in the second half and was on track to hit its core income guidance of P21.5 billion for the year.
