PLDT Inc. said Tuesday it will lay off some of its IT employees in the second quarter, after net earnings dipped last year.
PLDT chairman and chief executive Manuel Pangilinan told reporters the manpower reduction was still “under discussion.” PLDT has over 1,000 IT personnel.
“Hopefully, second quarter,” Pangilinan said, when asked about the timeframe of the planned manpower reduction.
He said PLDT was in talks with IBM to outsource its IT needs.
“In the course of providing IT needs, they will need people to provide it. So, the suggestion is they [IBM] will take over some of the IT personnels [of PLDT]. We want to make sure that they will keep their jobs,” Pangilinan said.
Pangilinan said he was expecting significant savings from the streamlining of manpower.
PLDT reduced 5 percent to 6 percent of its workforce in 2015. The company had 17,176 employees as end-2015.
PLDT said consolidated core profit fell 21 percent in 2016 to P27.9 billion from a year ago, on higher spending to support its fixed and mobile network expansion.
“We faced very tough tests in the past year as competition intensified and the shift to digital services accelerated. Our results reflect the impact of these challenges, but also point to us the way forward. We are focused on growing our data and digital services,” Pangilinan said.
Net income also dipped 9 percent to P20.16 billon last year from P22.07 billon in 2015.
Pangilinan said the company was not yet out of the woods, but the prospects this year looked brighter.
Pangilinan said the company was capitalizing on the momentum of its Home and Enterprise businesses, which had more headroom for growth and enjoyed significant advantage in terms of superior digital network infrastructure and brand strength.
He said 50 percent of revenues starting 2016 would come from Home and Enterprise business, representing a significant engine for growth.
“At the same time, we are re-energizing our wireless consumer business by focusing on quality subscribers. Number of subscribers is not as important metric as it was before,” Pangilinan said.
PLDT’s consolidated service revenues retreated 3.4 percent to P165.26 billon last year from P171.10 billion in 2015.
The company’s Home and Enterprise, which together accounted for 47 percent of consolidated service revenues, net of International businesses, grew 10 percent to P29.3 billion and 9 percent to P30.6 billion, respectively.
Data and broadband were the key growth drivers for both business units.
Its wireless consumer business, which consists of the mobile services for individual customers of Smart and Sun, generated service revenues of P66.4 billion, or 9 percent lower than the previous year, due to declines in SMS and domestic voice revenues.
Mobile data grew 20 percent and accounted for 34 percent of total service revenues, ahead of SMS and domestic voice revenues with shares of 33 percent each.
Pangilinan said the “2016 has been a period for resetting of the many dials of our company. “
“Profitability has been reset to a lower level, reflecting the impact of the changes in the business, our customer base and our organization. This has provided us a new baseline from which we can build upon, and grow,” he said.
Pangilinan set a recurring core income target of P21.5 billon this year, up by 6 percent from last year’s P20.2 billion.
“That will be put us back on the path to sustained growth and improving profitability, this year and in the coming years” he said.