PLDT stays upbeat despite profit dip

MANILA, Philippines — Telco giant PLDT Inc. remains bullish about its continued recovery even after net earnings fell by over a quarter in the first half.

PLDT saw its net income decline by 29 percent to P11.8 billion due to a higher gain from asset sales in 2017.

Recurring core income, which excludes Voyager and asset sales, grew six percent to P13 billion.

Total revenues went up  five percent year-on-year to P78.33 billion, with consolidated service revenues rising two percent to P72.5 billion.

“We have stayed on the growth path through the mid-point of this year by banking chiefly on the momentum of our Home and Enterprise businesses. Our individual wireless business has taken further steps forward, making gradual additions to its revenues and subscriber base,” PLDT chairman and chief executive officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said.

“Life has, however, become more complicated due to developments like the order of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for PLDT to hire over 7,300 employees from 38 of our service contractors. The injunction order granted by the Court of Appeals and the court’s reversal of certain findings relating to labor-only contracting provide relief, but considerable work still has to be done to resolve this matter with finality,” Pangilinan added.

The Court of Appeals granted PLDT’s petition for an injunction against DOLE’s regularization order.

“There’s no significant impact on the first half results, but there is an impact on the operations in the second half. We have not been able to quantify financially what that impact could be.

We are trying to restore as quickly as possible the disrupted services.

Hopefully by the end of next month, we are back to full strength in terms of the operational aspects of the business,” said PLDT chief corporate services officer Ray Espinosa.