MANILA, Philippines–The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) met its core net income target for 2014 and will likely post modest gains this year as it shifts focus to the Internet space from the maturing call and text businesses.
During a briefing, company chair Manuel V. Pangilinan said PLDT’s core income guidance for 2015 would be P35 billion—slightly lower than the P37 billion set for 2014.
Last year, PLDT’s core net income reached P37.4 billion. It was 3 percent lower than that of 2013 as SMS and long distance call revenues muted gains in data/broadband and domestic voice businesses. In the fourth quarter of 2014 alone, PLDT’s net income dropped 11 percent to P8.8 billion from the P9.9 billion seen in the same period of 2013.
The company has set aside P39 billion in capital outlay for 2015—higher than the P34.8-billion capex of 2014.
The company’s net income in 2014, which included one-time gains such as currency and derivatives-related items, fell four percent to P34.1 billion, from P35.4 billion in 2013. In the fourth quarter alone, PLDT saw a 5-percent decline in net income to P6.1 billion, from P6.5 billion of the same period the previous year. This was partly due to higher operating expenses and product subsidies.
The PLDT group ended the year with a cellular subscriber base of 69.9 millio—Smart accounted for 25.9 million; Talk ‘N Text, 28.1 million; and Sun Cellular, 15.8 million.
Also, the group’s broadband subscriber base crossed the 4-million mark at the end of 2014.
Smart’s subsidiary Smart Broadband had a subscriber base of more than 2.3 million—about 1.8 million of whom use the prepaid service. PLDT’s fixed broadband subscribers increased by 16 percent from the end of 2013, bringing the PLDT Group’s total fixed broadband subscriber base to about 1.1 million for 2014, representing 49 percent of the fixed line subscriber base.