PLDT Inc. said Thursday net income climbed 19 percent in 2019 to P22.52 billion from P18.92 billion in 2018 on record revenues boosted by mobile and broadband businesses.
“Despite continuing challenges, 2019 was a productive year, with revenues reaching record levels on the back of robust growth of our consumer wireless business,” PLDT chairman and president Manuel Pangilinan said.
PLDT, partly owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. of the Salim Group and Japan’s NTT group, said consolidated service revenues increased 8 percent in 2019 to P157.7 billion, the highest full-year revenue PLDT attained, surpassing the previous peak of P153.5 billion in 2014.
The company said that in terms of major business units, the Consumer Wireless Group led the way, boosting revenues by 20 percent to P72.1 billion.
The Enterprise Group posted a 5-percent growth in revenues to P39.2 billion, while PLDT Home’s revenues rose 3 percent P37.2 billion.
Revenues from data and broadband services jumped 20 percent to P105.2 billion and accounted for 67 percent of total revenues.
Pangilinan attributed the strong performance in 2019 to the investments in data and IT networks. PLDT spent P61 billion on network and IT expansion and transformation programs last year, while the balance of P11.9 billion went to the installation of broadband connections.
He said that despite the strong growth last year, “a key principle of sustainability is the adoption of the long-term view. It is important to keep this in mind as we face the heightened uncertainties caused by unforeseeable developments at home, such as the Taal volcano eruption, and abroad such as the COVID-19 outbreak. Under these circumstances, we must stay focused on the essentials, on the factors that provide the foundation for continued growth”.
“At this time, given the prevailing uncertainties, it is difficult to provide specific earnings guidance for 2020. We shall provide firm numbers when we have a better view of developments in the coming months,” he said.
PLDT’s telco core income, which excludes the impact of asset sales and Voyager Innovations, climbed 13 percent to P27.1 billion last year from P24.07 billion in 2018.
Pangilinan said the company planned to spend P83 billion this year to serve better the fast growing data usage of customers and continue to provide superior data customer experience.
He said that of the amount, P64.6 billion were earmarked for network and IT projects, mainly to support the explosive growth in data traffic.
About P18.5 billion, inclusive of P5.5 billion carried over from 2019, are to be spent for broadband installations which are projected to grow strongly in 2020.
PLDT expanded its fixed network rollout by 15 percent, reaching 7.2 million homes as of end- 2019. The total capacity increased 34 percent to 3.5 million ports, of which about 1.8 million fiber/VVDSL ports were available for new customers.