PLDT Inc. said Thursday net profit dropped by a quarter in the first nine months from a year ago, as the income last year was boosted by asset sales.
The country’s largest telecom company posted a net income of P16.48 billion in January to September, down from P21.87 billion in the same period last year.
PLDT said profit in the third quarter declined to P4.5 billion from P5.38 billion a year ago.
It said excluding foreign exchange gains and other non-recurring income, core profit without Voyager Inc. amounted to P19.07 billion in the nine-month period, up by 5 percent from last year’s P18.12 billion.
PLDT chairman, president, and chief executive Manuel Pangilinan said the robust home and enterprise business, as well as wireless business, were expected to provide an even more powerful lift to the overall business of PLDT and Smart.
“This will enable us to deal more effectively with the challenges that will pose by heightened competition from players old and new,” he said.
Pangilinan said the company kept its core profit guidance for 2018 (excluding Voyager) at P23 billion to P24 billion, and capital expenditures at P58 billion.
Revenues hit P111.88 billion in the first nine months, up 4 percent from last year’s P113.35 billion.
PLDT’s home business revenues grew 12 percent to P27.3 billion, while the enterprise business expanded 10 percent to P28.4 billion.
Individual wireless services revenues continued to gain momentum – rising 4 percent to P45.5 billion in the first nine months. This marked the fourth consecutive quarter of growth for this business group.
PLDT said it was also expecting to close the $175-million investment of KKR and Tencent Holdings Ltd. in Voyager Innovations Inc. by end of this month.
PLDT said the new funding was expected to cover Voyager’s cash requirements for at least two years.
Meanwhile, PLDT said its board approved the investment of P2.15 billion in Multisys Technologies Corp. for a 45.73-percent interest in the Philippine software development and IT solutions provider.
The investment will be done through PLDT’s wholly owned subsidiary, PLDT Global Investments Holdings Inc. The transaction is expected to be completed by next month.
“This investment positions PLDT as a telecoms and digital services provider with core software development capabilities,” Pangilinan said.
“With the software savvy of Multisys, PLDT will be able to offer more custom-made solutions to its customers and thus deepen its relationships with them,” he said.
The specialized industry solutions of Multisys complement the suite of solutions of PLDT Enterprise and ePLDT.
“Working with Multisys will enable us to step up our efforts to provide compelling digital solutions to address the specific requirements of our Enterprise customers. This will sharpen our competitive advantage and at the same time accelerate our digital transformation,” said PLDT chief revenue officer Ernesto Alberto.