PLDT Inc. said it plans to borrow $400 million from local banks by the fourth quarter to refinance maturing debts in 2019.
“It’s not a big funding exercise, it’s quite manageable around $400 million between PLDT and Smart. So, if ever towards the tail end of the year,” PLDT chief financial officer Anabelle Chua, said.
PLDT’s gross debt totaled $3.5 billion as of end December 2017, of which only 8 percent was unhedged when available US dollar cash and hedges allocated for debt are taken into account.
Majority or 92 percent of PLDT’s debt are fixed-rate loans.
Chua said PLDT had raised the money to deal with the capital expenditures for 2018. The company has programmed P58 billion in capital expenditures this year to further expand the fixed and mobile broadband networks, higher than P40 billion last year.
PLDT earlier reported a net income of P6.9 billion in the first quarter, up 39 percent from P4.9 billion in the same period last year.
Consolidated core income reached P6.1 billion in the three-month period, up 14 percent from a year ago.