Piltel net income surges following sale of GSM business

Net profits of Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) surged by more than half last year following the sale of its cellular business Talk ‘N Text to parent Smart Communications, Inc. In a statement, the company said its net income had gone up by 57 percent to P17.9 billion from a year earlier. Excluding the one-time gain, however, Piltel’s core net income slid by almost a quarter to P8.7 billion. "The decline in core net income is attributable to the GSM (global system for mobile communications) business having been sold in August 2009 and resulting in only 7.5 months of operations reflected in [the] 2009 financial results," it pointed out. Piltel sold its cellular business to Smart for P7.6 billion. It also had P1.2 billion in mark-to-market gains from its purchase of a fifth of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco). Piltel and sister Metro Pacific Investments Corp. on Monday said they had set up a unit that will become the biggest stakeholder in Meralco, which will pave the way for the Pangilinan group to buy more shares of the power distributor. The two companies said they would transfer a 28.2% stake in Meralco to the new unit, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc. Beacon will be equally owned by the two firms. Piltel is a unit of Smart, which in turn is owned by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). Metro Pacific is a unit of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. Manuel V. Pangilinan, who is the chairman of PLDT, the country’s most valuable listed firm, Metro Pacific and Piltel, will head Beacon’s five-member board. — N. A. Corsino/NPA, GMAnews.TV