Dito Telecom aims for breakeven at end of 2025

The Philippines' mobile entrant Dito Telecommunity aims to nearly double revenues in 2024 and to break even by the end of 2025.

The company's CEO, Eric Alberto, has told the Philippines Star it could take "five years to stabilize the business and seven to eight years to make a profit."

"The objective for us is to stabilize the business, gain financial stability by getting our business at least at breakeven level by the end of next year, then move for profitability," he told the publication.

Chief Commercial Officer Evelyn Jimenez said revenues would likely reach 20 billion Philippines pesos (US$350 million) this year, up from PHP11 billion ($192.2 million) in 2023. It aims to hit positive EBITDA by 2025, she said in an interview with the Manila Standard earlier this week.

The operator has big expectations for customer growth as well, according to Jimenez. It is targeting 15 million to 16 million mobile subs by the end of the year, up from 10.4 million today, and an increase in home broadband customers from 100,000 to 300,000 or 400,000.

Dito, which began operations in March 2021 with China Telecom as a 40% shareholder, faces its final national audit in July. The mandatory audit by the National Telecommunications Commission will measure population coverage and network performance.

Stock down 21% since January

The company says it is on track to hitting national population coverage of 84% by July, up from 82% today, and targeting 87% coverage by the end of the year.

While Dito execs remain upbeat, investors aren't feeling the same glow of enthusiasm.

Listed parent Dito CME Holdings enjoyed a spike in value in January after signing a frame agreement with local ISP Converge ICT that would allow the two companies to share their fiber assets.

But the stock has fallen 21% since because of the lack of progress in achieving any actual network sharing arrangements.

In its last filing, for Q3 2023, Dito CME revealed that liabilities exceeded assets by PHP212 billion ($3.8 billion). It reported a loss of PHP9.8 billion ($171.3 million) for the quarter on PHP3.1 billion ($54.2 million) in revenue, including a forex loss of PHP4.6 billion ($80.4 million).

The company's 2023 full-year result, due for release on April 15, has been delayed until April 30.