PLDT Inc. on Friday, Dec. 23, said it plans to borrow P35 billion to 45 billion in the next two years for "general corporate purposes, including, but not limited to, payment of capital expenditures (capex) and dividends".
The telco confirmed President and Chief Executive Officer Alfredo S. Panlilio's statement that the "company may incur additional debt in the short term" in the wake of its P48 billion budget overrun.
However, Panlilio's statement does not include the impact on PLDT's reported income, the telco pointed out.
"We wish to clarify that the P48 billion capex overrun includes, but is not limited to, site roll out, transport projects, and ports roll out,” PLDT disclosed.
Specifically, "5G assets do not comprise the bulk of the P48 billion capex overrun", according to PLDT.
The telco only deferred its 5G rollout due to "the tepid market adoption of 5G handsets given that these are still not affordable for most of the Philippine prepaid market".
PLDT also made it clear that the 5G assets in its warehouses are not to be written off.
These 5G assets could either be repurposed for 4G/LTE or deployed when 5G adoption in the market picks up.
Only older equipment that serve the 2G, 3G and legacy transport elements of the network can possibly be written off.