PLDT Inc. said Tuesday it will borrow more than P21 billion in the second half to refinance debt and partly fund the 2019 capital expenditures.
“The total borrowing is a little more than P21 billion, mostly [through] bilateral banks,” PLDT chief financial officer Anabelle Chua said in a recent interview.
She said the proceeds from the loan would be used to refinance debt and support capex.
PLDT allocated P78.4 billion for 2019 capex, up by P20 billion from 2018.
The aggressive roll-out is intended to further push the already significant network advantage of PLDT and Smart and support its active campaign for more revenues.
PLDT earlier reported a net income of P6.7 billion in the first quarter, down by 3 percent from a year ago.
The country’s largest telecom company said core net income rose 6 percent to P7.2 billion as consolidated service revenues climbed 7 percent to P38 billion in the three-month period.
PLDT set a core profit target of P26 billion this year.
Service revenues of three major business groups accounted for 94 percent of total service revenues and reached P35.8 billion in the first quarter, up 12 percent from the same quarter in 2018.
The 12-percent increase was higher than the 6-percent growth registered in the whole of 2018.
Data and broadband service revenues grew 21 percent to P24.4 billion and accounted for 68 percent of total service revenues excluding international operations.