PLDT Inc. said it is ready to move forward with an outlook to sustain its strong financial condition, as it settled the issue on its P48-billion capital expenditure (capex) overrun.
This as the company PLDT reported all-time high service revenues of P190 billion in 2022, up 4 percent from the previous year.
PLDT said results of the forensic review on the elevated capex for 2019 to 2022 showed no evidence of fraud, intentional concealment, or bad faith conduct on the part of any employee of the company and no basis to restate the company’s historical financial statements.
“We’re relieved that this case is now… that it is incumbent upon the management and the board to get back in the saddle and move on and move forward and demonstrate that despite the humps on the road, our financial and operating conditions remain strong and robust,” Manuel Pangilinan, PLDT chairman, said during the company’s financial briefing.
Pangilinan said the company expects mid-single digit growth in revenues this year. PLDT has set a lower capex guidance of P80 billion to P85 billion compared with its actual spending of P96.8 billion last year.
PLDT’s telco core income, excluding the impact of asset sales and Voyager Innovations, rose 10 percent to P33.1 billion from P2.9 billion the prior year. However, reported income decreased to P10.5 billion mainly due to accelerated depreciation booked for the year.
“Our core business remains to be sound and continues to show solid EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) numbers,” said Alfredo Panlilio, PLDT and Smart Communications Inc. president and chief executive officer.
“We have an excellent network, strong brands, and attractive products. Wireless is simplifying its portfolio, Home continues to expand beyond connectivity, and Enterprise is pursuing its digital transformation initiatives,” he added.
According to Panlilio, the company will reset its business strategy moving forward and will focus on improving customer service.
“We are cleaning, we are trying to be more efficient and also making sure we invest in profitable business, to get the future in terms of where the telco should be going to. It’s a reset from a business strategy point of view. Moving forward, we want to close this chapter… and we want to move forward,” Panlilio said.
PLDT said it has completed discussions with its major vendors, representing approximately 80 percent of its outstanding capex commitments as of Dec. 31, 2022. That effort resulted in the company’s entry into settlement and mutual release agreements with its major vendors in March 2023.
“Those agreements have the effect of reducing the company’s outstanding commitments to these vendors for the acquisition of property and equipment post-2022 to approximately P33 billion, net of advances paid to these vendors,” PLDT said.
PLDT reported its consolidated EBITDA reached an all-time high, growing 4 percent year-on-year to P100.5 billion, excluding manpower rightsizing program expenses of P5 billion, driven by higher service revenues.
PLDT said this marks the first time it breached the P100-billion mark. EBITDA margin was at 51 percent in 2022.
The individual wireless segment posted P82 billion in revenues in 2022, driven by a 2 percent growth in data revenues. Still, revenues from this segment fell by 5 percent.
As of end-2022, PLDT had deployed 1.5 million fiber ports nationwide, bringing the total number of fiber ports to 6.08 million covering around 17,700 barangays. Port utilization for the year was at 60 percent.
PLDT Home’s fiber subscribers as of end-December 2022 stood at 2.9 million, with 514,000 net additions for the year, capturing 59 percent of fiber customer industry growth last year. Fiber-only revenues accounted for 84 percent of total Home revenues, up 70 percent from a year ago.
