Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) posted a 15% rise in net income for the three months ended 30 June 2009, and revised upwards its core earnings for the full year to PHP41 billion (USD856 million) from PHP40 billion previously. Despite the current gloomy economic climate PLDT, which is owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co Ltd, and Japanese firms NTT Communications and NTT DoCoMo, said it was pleased with its ‘robust’ first-half performance but wary of what was to come during the remaining months of the year. In a statement, PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan noted ‘the third quarter is traditionally the slowest one in the year and we worry that the adverse effects of the global economic crisis may have a lagged effect on our economy.’ He went on to say: ‘We are seeing some signs that consumers generally may be wary about spending or committing to spend. Nonetheless, I remain confident that we are up to the challenge. We have faced tough times before.’
PLDT’s net income for the April-June period was PHP10.14 billion compared with PHP8.82 billion a year ago. Based on Reuters estimates, the telco is forecast to have full year net profit of PHP40.6 billion, down 5% year-on-year. Second quarter core earnings, which exclude currency and derivatives gains, reached PHP10.62 billion, up 13% from a year ago, while service revenues rose 3% to PHP36.5 billion in the second quarter from a year ago, helped by a 4.3 rise in its mobile subscriber base to 38.5 million as at 30 June. The quarterly gain in mobile users was attributed to the launch of cheaper pre-paid product offers.