As a requisite for obtaining the General Certificate of Education, all schoolchildren in the United Kingdom are made to learn either Latin or classical Greek. The heir or heiress to the British throne is no exception, and so the young Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI, had to learn Latin. Queen Elizabeth II, who the princess became, did not forget her Latin and in the midst of the turmoil over the death of Princess Diana of Wales—particularly her perceived apathy toward that tragic event—carried a Latin phrase that has reverberated in public discussions in the two decades since 1997.
The phrase was annus horribilis. The chairman and chief executive officer of the nation’s largest telecommunications organization PLDT-Smart Telecommunications Inc.—remembered Queen Elizabeth’s highly evocative Latin phrase when he recently described PLDT-Smart’s operations in 2016. The past year was an annus horribilis for his telecoms establishment, he said ruefully.
In MVP’s discussion of PLDT-Telecoms’ 2016 operations the words “down,” “fell” and “lower” proliferated. The telecoms groups’ net income for the first three quarters of that year were down a whopping 37 percent—from P25.3 billion to P15.8 billion. Core profit declined 20 percent—from P27.0 billion to P21.7 billion—during the same period. Service revenues of the consumer wireless business group fell by 5 percent, to P55.8 billion. Significantly, revenues from voice and SMS services declined by 14 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Overall, consolidated revenues fell during that nine-month period to P125.3 billion from P127.8 billion.
ruly a horrible year for PLDT-Smart Telecoms—and for its CEO and guiding spirit. And what caused the horribleness of the past annus? In a word, aggressive competition—including a price war—from the other half of this country’s telecoms duopoly, Globe Telecoms Inc. Knowledgeable observers appear to agree that PLDT-Telecoms fell behind in the competitiveness game in 2016 and needs to be more aggressive on both the marketing and the technical front.
And is 2017 likely to be another annus horribilis for the nation’s telecoms leader? “PLDT expects 2017 to be a tough year for its wireless business and intense competition” Still, Mr. Pangilinan said, PLDT/Smart expects to be able to meet its 2017 core net income guidance figure of P20 billion and reported net income target of P27 billion-P28 billion.
Is MVP likely to be able to turn his telecoms empire around and be able to cope with an expected tough year? Or is this year likely to be another annus horribilis? Mr. Pangilinan is nothing if not a savvy businessman and so long as he does a good job of tightening up his management team, there is no reason why 2017 should not be a turnaround year for PLDT/Smart Telecoms.
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