Crisis? What Crisis? PLDT steers solid H1 courseCrisis? What Crisis? PLDT steers solid H1 course

The Philippines' PLDT, buoyed by increased data demand, posted a solid-looking H1.

Consolidated revenues for the period were up 6%, year-on-year, to 86.7 billion Philippine pesos (US$1.8 billion).

Growth was mainly down to higher revenue from strong data demand at the wireless and fixed-line business segments.

Mobile revenue from data services – which include mobile Internet, mobile broadband and "other data services" – increased by an impressive 29%, to PHP31.3 billion ($637 million).

Figure 1: Demand for smartphones services has remained strong in the Philippines.

"New normal" pandemic lockdown measures helped to create nice conditions for increased data adoption, but PLDT claimed it did its bit to stimulate demand still further through "enhanced data products, consumer engagement promotions, advertising campaigns, and continuous network improvement and LTE migration."

Overall turnover would have been higher were it not for lower revenue from voice and SMS services at PLDT's wireless unit.

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Consolidated H1 EBITDA also got a shot in the arm from improved cost-management performances, both at the wireless and fixed line segments. It was up 9%, year-on-year, to PHP43.2 billion ($880 million).

Wireless did particularly well. EBITDA here jumped 12%, over the same period, to a shade over PHP29 billion ($590 million).

Total H1 core income was up 5%, to PHP13.9 billion ($283 million).

"We are obviously pleased that our numbers have held up well despite the challenging times and we are hopeful that we can maintain a bottom line similar to 2019," said PLDT CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan.

PLDT's full-year 2019 core income was PHP27.2 billion ($554 million).

— Ken Wieland, contributing editor, special to Light Reading