MANILA, Philippines – Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is confident of meeting its revised profit guidance for the year on the back of a strong performance in the fourth quarter.
PLDT president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno said the company’s performance in the fourth is better than the third quarter because of the Christmas season.
“The trending is okay in the fourth quarter and is most likely better than the third quarter. The fourth quarter is usually the best quarter for us because it is the Christmas season,” Nazareno said.
He pointed out that the “free Internet” offered to all subscribers of Smart Communications Inc., Talk ‘N Text, and Sun Cellular last Sept. 26 likely tempered the performance of the PLDT Group in the fourth quarter.
“However with the free Internet, it might be tempered a little bit but we are maintaining the updated guidance profit, the bottom line guidance,” he added.
Nazareno said the company would review the Jan. 5 scheduled end of the “free Internet” promo to determine if it could be extended.
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He noted that more subscribers are now using the mobile Internet as a result of the promo.
“We have millions of unique users already. What we’re seeing is that 50 percent are new users since we launched,” he said.
According to Nazareno, the company would be launching several offers to take advantage of the increase in the number of Internet users.
PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan earlier said the company revised downwards by four percent its full-year profit guidance to P37 billion from P39.5 billion as competition is expected to “remain keen in the fourth quarter of the year, and possibly beyond 2014 as well.”
The company’s core net income slipped one percent to P28.6 million in the first nine months of the year, from P28.8 billion in the same period last year, while consolidated service revenues inched up by one percent to P122.9 billion from P121.6 billion.
PLDT’s reported net income likewise declined by three percent to P28 billion from P29 billion.
The PLDT Group had a subscriber base of 75 million as of end-September comprising of 69 million wireless subscribers as well as 3.7 million broadband subscribers and 2.2 million fixed line subscribers.
Wireless giant Smart Communications Inc. had 25.7 million subscribers as of end-September while Talk ‘N Text had 27.8 million, and Sun Cellular with 15.5 million.
