PLDT Inc. said Thursday net income dropped 33 percent in 2017, after it made large investments to modernize its network.
The country’s largest telecom company said net income reached P13.4 billion last year, down from P20.16 billion in 2016.
“This was mainly due to non-core capex [capital expenditures]-related expenses of P16.7 billion in connection with our transformation initiatives, including accelerated depreciation and loss due to a swap of network elements in certain part of the country, resulting from PLDT’s aggressive network upgrade aimed to achieve dramatic improvements in customer experience,” PLDT said.
PLDT said in the fourth quarter alone, it incurred a net loss of P8.51 billion, wider by 11 percent than the P4.14-billion loss a year earlier.
Revenues fell 3 percent last year to P159.93 billion from P165.26 billion in 2016. Revenues in the fourth quarter rose to P40.86 billion from P39.88 billion a year ago.
PLDT’s Home and enterprise business groups reported revenues of P33 billion and P34.1 billion, respectively, posting growth rates of 13 percent and 11 percent from a year earlier.
Revenues of the wireless consumer group retreated 11 percent to P58.9 billion.
PLDT said expenses increased 7 percent to P150.42 billion last year from P140.56 billion in 2016.
“Moving forward in 2018, we continue to level up even more. We are continuing our aggressive network roll-out to bring world class internet to more parts of the country,” PLDT chairman and president Manuel Pangilinan said.
“We are developing more compelling digital services and solutions for both consumer and enterprise customers. We are overhauling our operations so that we can serve our customers in a more personalized way, and, do this quickly and efficiently,” he said.
Pangilinan said he was expecting the company to sustain the positive trend in 2017.
“For 2018, we expect our recurring core income to rise anywhere between P1 billion to P2 billion to about P23 billion to P24 billion, on the back of anticipated growth in service revenues in 2018 by around4 percent,” he said.
Recurring core income went up 11 percent last year to P22.3 billion.
“That will take us another step forward on the path to sustained growth and profitability,” Pangilinan added.
PDT has allocated P58 billion in capital expenditures this year, with 53 percent of the total earmarked for the fixed network business requirements.