PLDT Inc. said Thursday net income grew 4 percent in the first half to P12.2 billion from a year ago, on the back of 6-percent growth in revenues.
The country’s largest telecom company also announced the appointment of Alfredo Panlilio as the new president of Smart Communications effective Aug. 8. Panlilio will remain the executive vice president and chief revenue officer of PLDT, on a concurrent basis.
PLDT chairman and chief executive Manuel Pangilinan said core income was stable at P13.2 billion, excluding equity in losses from Voyager, accelerated depreciation and gains from the sale of Rocket Internet shares.
PLDT’s consolidated service revenues rose 6 percent to P76.6 billion, the highest half-year revenue level it posted since the second semester of 2014.
“We have sustained our revenue growth, led by our consumer wireless business, by significantly improving customer experience through superior network services and targeted service offers. Moving forward, we shall bolster this momentum by further enhancing customer experience across our various businesses through strategic organizational adjustments and the ongoing overhaul of our IT systems and customer service processes,” Pangilinan said.
PLDT’s consumer wireless business set the pace for growth in the first half of 2019, boosting revenues by 20 percent year-on-year to P34.4 billion. Data and broadband accounted for two-thirds of these revenues.
Smart, TNT and Sun acquired 8.7 million new subscribers in the first half of 2019, pushing the total to more than 66.8 million as of end-June 2019.
Revenues of PLDT Home grew at a modest pace of 2 percent year-on-year to P18.3 billion as of end-June 2019.
“The first half of this year has clearly shown that the key to improving the business performance of PLDT Home moving forward is to provide progressively better customer experience and upgrade our service delivery. Which is why, for our fiber broadband service, we are focused on delivering better installation and repair services, and, enriched service offers such as faster data packages and whole home WiFi coverage,” Panlilio said.
PLDT formed the Consumer Business Fulfillment Management Group to be headed by Bernard Castro, formerly a vice president of Manila Electric Company.
“With his extensive experience in managing Meralco’s distribution services, Bernard will oversee efforts of our zone organizations to attain the desired service level quality and standards,” Panlilio said.
The Consumer Business Operations Management was organized under Marco Alejandro Borlongan as PLDT’s dedicated commercial operations arm to continuously improve customer care, service order, and credit and collections management.
“To complete these organizational adjustments, Menardo Jimenez has moved from our Business Transformation Organization to head the Consumer Business Group for Home,” Panlilio said.
Pangilinan said with the future driven by data, the key to PLDT’s success lies in focusing on the customer and giving the best possible experience.
“In this light, and given the momentum we have seen in the first half of 2019, we are confident that we will attain our guidance for full-year telco core income of P26.4 billion,” Pangilinan said.