MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is on track to meeting its full year profit guidance of P39.5 billion amid the lean season in the third quarter of the year.
PLDT president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno said the company was able to sustain the momentum in the first half of the year on the back of the strong performance of several business segments.
“Its okay, third quarter is normally a lean quarter seasonally. Our bottom line is on track as we what we have given in terms of guidance in the first half results,” he said.
Nazareno said the PLDT Group has set a core income target of P39.5 billion this year and in the neighborhood of P9 billion for the third quarter of the year. This year’s core income target is two percent higher compared to P38.7 billion in 2012.
According to him, the drivers of growth for the third quarter would still be the same as the first half of the year including data, broadband, voice, and short messaging system (SMS) or text messages.
“The same as the first half including data, broadband, voice revenues and hopefully SMS will be more stable now,” Nazareno said.
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In the first half of the year, PLDT booked a two percent increase in core earnings to P19.83 billion from P19.39 billion in the same period last year as well as two percent rise in revenues to P82.5 billion from P81 billion.
The company’s net income climbed two percent to P20 billion as expenses grew six percent to P62.5 billion from P59.1 billion.
The PLDT Group’s total subscriber base stood at 74.7 million as of end-June with cellular subscriber base numbering to 68.9 million including Smart with 25.6 million, Talk ‘N Text with 28.1 million, and Sun Cellular with 15.3 million.
