PLDT 2015 capex seen to hit P40B

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) will likely raise its capital spending for 2015 to upgrade capacity amid strong demand for Internet services.

PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno said that, from an initial capital spending estimate of P39 billion, the figure “might exceed P40 billion this year”—its single largest capital spending budget.

He added that spending, traditionally about a fifth of annual revenues, could remain elevated through 2017.

“The demand on data is growing really fast—both on mobile and fixed Internet,” Nazareno said on the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders meeting Tuesday.

Also, more overseas investments, are on the way after PLDT invested 333 million euros for a minority stake in Germany’s Rocket Internet and Iflix, which offers services similar to video streaming service Netflix, said PLDT chair Manuel V. Pangilinan.

For the first three months of 2015, PLDT’s core net income slipped 5 percent to P9.3 billion, while total revenues were stable at P42.6 billion.

Its data revenue went up by 11 percent to P11.2 billion, with data and broadband now accounting for 27 percent of total group revenues.

Fixed broadband businesses generated P3.8 billion in revenue, up by 10 percent. Its mobile Internet revenue rose by 19 percent to P2.2 billion.

PLDT’s wireless subscriber base during the period was the country’s largest at 73 million.