PLDT Inc. reported a core income of P17.6 billion in the first half of 2025, slightly higher than the P17.3 billion posted in the same period in 2024, and driven by the growth of its digital banking business and sustained revenue growth.
This came as PLDT Inc. and Smart chairman and CEO Manny Pangilinan asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to veto the Konektadong Pinoy bill on constitutional grounds.
PLDT said on Tuesday, August 12, that growth in core income was supported by Maya’s positive contribution. For the first half of 2025, PLDT’s equity share in Maya’s core income stood at P406 million, a P1.1 billion reversal from last year’s losses.
Reported income for the first half of 2025 was at P18.1 billion, softening by 1 percent.
“Our results for the first half of 2025 show the resilience of our business and the strength of our people. We continue to invest in the future — expanding our network, enhancing customer experience, and driving innovation across our businesses. In a challenging environment, we remain committed to delivering value to our customers, shareholders, and the country,” Manuel Pangilinan, PLDT and Smart chairman and CEO said in a press statement.
Consolidated service revenues (net of interconnect costs) held steady at P97.1 billion in the first six months of 2025. Data and broadband, which grew by P1.3 billion to P82.2 billion, accounted for 85 percent of consolidated service revenues.
Consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), grew by 3 percent to P55.5 billion from P53.9 billion in the same period last year.
EBITDA margin remained steady at 52 percent despite pressures from rising costs, which were tightly managed, PLDT said.
For the full year capital expenditure guidance, PLDT further reduced its capital expenditure or capex to P63 billion from the original P68-billion-to-P73-billion guidance due to more favorable pricing, and successfully negotiated terms with vendors.
Capex for the first half of 2025 amounted to P27.4 billion, compared with P35.1 billion in the same period of 2024.
Meanwhile, Pangilinan expressed strong opposition to certain provisions of the Konektadong Pinoy bill and urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to veto it, citing constitutional issues.
“We were requested by the Office of the Deputy Secretary for Legal Affairs of Malacanang to comment on the bill and we sent our comment. We raised this issue of constitutionality and our position that the President should veto the bill,” Pangilinan said.
“Data transmission providers are given so much benefits, which are not being given to other telcos. Here they’re requiring us to open all our assets — all our assets to data transmission providers without foundation that it must be essential,” Pangilinan explained.
He added that in a recent report from the Unicapital Securities, Inc. (USI), it said the Konektadong Pinoy bill, which was ratified by Congress months ago, may pose a risk to the market share of incumbent telcos.
But USI also raised positive points about the bill: “While the bill garnered mixed reactions across industry stakeholders, we see the enactment of the measure (will) intensify competition in the telco sector and accelerate network rollout in the unserved and underserved areas,” USI Research Analyst Peter Louise Garnace said.
The USI report said for incumbent players, “we believe that the KPB may pose risks to market share and regulatory moat. Nevertheless, we see the measure (will) open up opportunities. In our view, the impact will be asymmetric depending on each player’s network infrastructure, service quality, and ability to pivot toward an open-access business model.”
Based on USI’s analysis of the impact of the Konektadong Pinoy Bill on each telco company — using a scale from 1 to 3 where 1 indicates the least exposure to risk and 3 indicates high exposure — Converge, with a rating of 1.7, has relatively lower risk exposure compared to PLDT and Globe, which scored 2.0 and 2.3, respectively.
