Due to the growth of its Home and Enterprise businesses, PLDT Inc. hauled in ₱47.1 billion Service Revenues in the first quarter of 2023, two percent higher than the same period last year. Its data and broadband segments grew by 6 percent, or ₱2.2 billion to ₱38.5 billion, contributing 82 percent of consolidated service revenues. However, the telco netted ₱9.0 billion income, down one percent in the comparative period, after adjusting for forex losses, derivative transactions, accelerated depreciation, asset impairment, Manpower Rightsizing Program costs and shares in the losses of Voyager Innovations Telco Core Income, excluding the impact of asset sales and Voyager, reached ₱8.6 billion, up 5 percent or ₱0.4 billion from the same period last year, mainly due to higher EBITDA and lower depreciation partly negated by the increase in financing costs. “Because of soaring inflationary pressures, we must strive to attain cost-efficiency and operational excellence while keeping our products and services affordable for our subscribers," says Alfredo S. Panlilio, PLDT and Smart Communications Inc. President and CEO "We continue with our transformation initiatives to strengthen our core business as we plan for our growth strategies,” he added. Driven by higher service revenues, PLDT's consolidated EBITDA also grew 2 percent or ₱0.6. billion year-on-year to ₱26.0 billion in the first quarter, due to higher revenues partly offset by the increase in opex, excluding Manpower Rightsizing Program expenses of ₱1.5 billion. EBITDA margin was at 52 percent for the period. Consolidated EBITDA is trending to again exceed the ₱100-billion mark for 2023. “The Capex Overrun issues have largely been resolved; it is time in 2023 for PLDT to face forward, and move on," declared PLDT Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan. "We should now channel our energies towards keeping the PLDT Group well-positioned for growth amidst this challenging macro-economic environment,” he stressed. PLDT's Consolidated Net Debt at the end of the first quarter of 2023 amounted to ₱220.7 billion while net-debt-to-EBITDA improved to 2.18x from 2.25x at the end of 2022. Gross Debt was at ₱247.7 billion, with maturities well spread out. Only 16% of Gross Debt is denominated in U. S. dollars and 5 percent is unhedged. PLDT credit ratings from Moody’s and S&P Global remained at investment grade. Notably, PLDT Home's growth continues albeit at slower pace post-pandemic. In the first quarter, Home’s fiber-only service revenues grew by 14 percent, or ₱1.6 billion to ₱12.8 billion. Fiber-only revenues accounted for 85 percent of total Home revenues of ₱15.0 billion, which were 6% or ₱0.8 billion higher compared with a year ago. “We believe that there is still room to grow the home broadband business as the market remains underpenetrated, albeit unserved demand sits at the lower segments of the market which are more sensitive to inflation," explained Jeremiah dela Cruz, FVP and head of PLDT Home. "This is where PLDT can leverage its unique competitive advantages of having strong brand equity in the market as well as the ability to offer a range of fixed and wireless products to address market affordability considerations,” thr executive added. PLDT Home’s fiber subscribers as of end-March 2023 stood at 3.0 million, with 81,000 fiber net additions for the first quarter, more than thrice that of the previous quarter’s due to lower churn and higher migrations. As of end-March 2023, PLDT’s total number of fiber ports rose to 6.1 million covering around 17,900 barangays. On the other hand, the telco's Enterprise business, specifically Data and ICT, have become strong drivers of emerging revenue growth. The B2B arm of the PLDT Group increased revenues by 5 percent, or ₱0.5 billion, to reach ₱11.8 billion for the first quarter of 2023. This growth can be attributed to businesses' continued expansion and increased adoption of digital transformation initiatives in response to the rapidly changing business environment. Corporate data grew 7 percent due to higher fiber, managed IT and i-Gate revenues. In the Wireless business segment, PLDT Enterprise also achieved consistent growth in the solutions area.
The "Internet of Possibilities" platform, the sole IoT connectivity management platform in the Philippines, has enabled the company to support a wider range of use cases, including asset management, vehicle tracking, telemetry, POS management, smart elevators, and other applications. ePLDT, the ICT subsidiary of PLDT, posted robust double-digit revenue growth of 14 percent, driven by the consistent performance of its data center segment and the increased business in the Multi-Cloud space. This growth has cemented PLDT Enterprise's position as a trusted digital transformation partner for businesses. ePLDT’s expansion was strengthened by its leadership in the local data center industry with increased capacity in Vitro Makati 2 and Santa Rosa’s plan to go live in the first quarter of 2024. Looking forward, ePLDT is setting its sights on expanding its managed service offerings integrated with cybersecurity solutions and cloud business in Southeast Asia.
PLDT’s Individual Wireless segment posted revenues of ₱19.8 billion in the first quarter of 2023, showing stable revenues year-on-year despite the impact of SIM registration, continued high inflation and the seasonal dip in consumer spending after the Christmas holidays. Mobile data revenues grew by 4 percent to ₱17.0 billion as data usage per subscriber and data traffic continued to register year-on-year increases. In the first quarter, mobile data traffic rose 18 percent to 1,191 Petabytes, demonstrating improving year-on-year trends and helping arrest the decline of revenues compared to the same period last year. Active data users were estimated at around 39 million, while average monthly mobile data usage per subscriber grew by 15% to 10.6 GB in the first quarter of 2023 from 9.2 GB for the full year 2022.
The PLDT Group has further expanded its total fiber footprint to over 1.1 million kilometers, consisting of over 231,000 kilometers of international fiber and over 874,000 kilometers of domestic fiber as of end-March 2023. Homes passed reached around 17.2 million homes in 42 percent of the country’s barangays. PLDT’s fiber infrastructure supports Smart’s approximately 76,500 base stations, including more than 7,200 5G base stations and about 38,800 4G/LTE base stations deployed nationwide. Under an on-going network optimization program, existing 5G base stations are being repurposed to 4G/LTE based on analysis of 5G traffic for better customer experience and to realize operational, capex and spectrum efficiencies. Smart’s network covers 97 percent of the population with 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE, and 5G. Overall, the telco's first quarter results are a demonstration of the resilience of the company and its people, reiterating PLDT’s ambition to reinvent itself by 2025 as industry thought leader, employer of choice of Filipinos, and a responsible corporate citizen, according to Pangilinan. “As we approach our 100th year, we forge ahead in pursuit of our greater dreams: Enabling every Filipino, bringing families and communities together, and being a Company that our countrymen can rely on. We look to the future with undiluted hope,” he concluded.