EARNINGS: PLDT posts 1% revenue drop, to cut 800 jobs

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) on Thursday said revenues slipped in the first nine months of the year as traditional revenue streams such as voice call and SMS or short messaging service dropped. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the country’s largest telecommuncations firm said that revenues in Jan-September totaled P106.7 billion, down by 1.4 percent from P108.3 the same period last year. PLDT said its traditional bread-and-butter that is text messaging was overtaken by voice service as the biggest contributor to total revenues. In the nine-month period, the company said its cellular voice revenues improved by 12 percent but its text messaging revenues dipped by 13 percent. PLDT said earnings from text messaging “remained under pressure from the proliferation of lower-yield offerings, multi-SIM ownership, and regulator-mandated load validity extensions." Slashing 800 jobs PLDT, the nation’s largest company by market value at P495.38 billion, meanwhile said it plans to cut some 800 jobs, or 6 percent of its 13,000 workers. The company will book a P2-billion severance benefits, Manuel Pangilinan, PLDT chairman, said in a press briefing in Makati Thursday. Pangilinan said that the third-quarter results underscored expectations that the next two years would be difficult for the company. The industry “is becoming increasingly price-competitive and market-share sensitive," the company said. “Transition of our telco revenues is accelerating both the decline of traditional sources and the growth of new revenue streams," PLDT said in its financial and operating results for the first nine months. Core profits In January-September, PLDT’s core profits totaled P31.4 billion, up by of 2 percent from P31 billion. The company ended the period with 44.1 million subscribers, more than a million less than second quarter numbers due to the post-election “churn." Making up for the slack in traditional revenues was PLDT’s broadband sales, which grew by 20 percent to P12.9 billion. Revenues from the broadband service accounted for 12 percent of total revenues, PLDT said. In the next three years, Pangilinan said the company’s new businesses, particularly broadband, should account for 50 percent of total earnings. “We are concentrating on new areas for revenues. We have to move consumers away from the traditional telecommunications services over to the Internet," he added. — JE/VS, GMANews.TV