THE US court has approved the settlement of the securities class action filed against PLDT Inc. on the issue involving the P48-billion budget overrun from 2019 to 2022.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PLDT said on September 17, the US District Court for Central District of California granted final approval to its case-ending settlement of securities class action litigation commenced in 2023.

The case was filed against the company’s current and former directors and officers by certain investors in PLDT’s American Depositary Shares.

The investors alleged the defendants or PLDT made materially false and misleading statements regarding the company’s capital expenditures (capex) and internal controls at various times between 2019 and 2022.

The company entered into a Stipulation of Settlement on Feb. 16, 2024, to resolve the US Class Action in its entirety against all defendants for a payment of $3 million.

“The settlement contains no admission of liability, fault, or wrongdoing by any defendant,” PLDT said.

The US court will retain jurisdiction over the implementation of the settlement and the distribution and disposition of the settlement fund. 

PLDT said results of the forensic review of the P48- billion capex overrun for 2019 to 2022 released in March last year showed no evidence of fraud, intentional concealment or bad faith conduct on the part of any employee of the company.

Over the last 10 years, PLDT has allocated P635.2 billion for capex, of which P219.5 billion was spent from 2014 to 2018 and P415.7 billion was spent from 2019 to 2023.

For 2024, PLDT pegged its capex guidance between P75 billion to P78 billion, with the lion’s share allocated for network and capacity expansion.

Capex for the first half of 2024 amounted to P35.1 billion, lower than last year’s P40.8 billion. Capex intensity ratio was at 34 percent versus 41 percent a year ago.

PLDT said it aims to continue to annually reduce the capex headline number and capex intensity to help achieve positive free cash flow.