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Elijah Felice Rosales - The Philippine Star
February 28, 2025 | 12:00am
PLDT said its net income grew by 21 percent to P32.31 billion last year, from P26.61 billion a year ago, showing resilience in the face of new industry challenges.
Businessworld / JGSUMMIT.COM.PH
MANILA, Philippines — Telco giant PLDT Inc. hiked its profit by more than a fifth in 2024, drawing momentum from revenue growth and spending cuts, along with the buildup in its digital banking business.
PLDT said its net income grew by 21 percent to P32.31 billion last year, from P26.61 billion a year ago, showing resilience in the face of new industry challenges.
PLDT’s core income, measured as profit from the flagship business, expanded by two percent to P35.14 billion, hitting its guidance of P35 billion for 2024.
Revenue jumped by three percent to P216.83 billion, with the telco sourcing nearly 75 percent of it from data and broadband. PLDT supported this earnings hike with a two percent cut in spending to P166.35 billion, slashing selling and depreciation expenses.
The Maya Group – which PLDT partially owns – became profitable in December 2024 and is expected to stay in the black this year. In turn, PLDT’s losses in Maya dropped by more than half to P1 billion in 2024, from P2.2 billion in 2023.
Likewise, digital bank Maya Bank Inc. is expanding both its customer base and loan portfolio, as it ended last year managing P39 billion in deposits and lending P92 billion to borrowers.
PLDT chief financial officer Danny Yu said the telco should achieve positive cash flow by 2026 based on the path it is treading financially.
PLDT trimmed its capital expenditures by eight percent to P78.2 billion in 2024, from P85.1 billion in 2023. The capex will be lowered further in 2025 to between P68 billion and P73 billion.
Despite the capex cutback, Yu said PLDT would keep on investing in more assets, particularly in 5G network, to keep up with the rising data usage of Filipinos. The biggest Philippine telco is also keen on expanding its low-cost products in select areas to draw in more customers.
PLDT chairman, president and CEO Manuel V.
Pangilinan said the telco has yet to come up with final guidance on profit and revenue growth for the year. However, he wants his team to prepare for new challenges facing the industry, especially in the advent of artificial intelligence (AI).
“Our 2024 [financial] results highlight PLDT’s resilience and the continued demand for reliable connectivity, but our intention is to use this as a benchmark for an even better performance in the coming years,” Pangilinan said.
“There are countless challenges and opportunities on the horizon. Among them are AI, big data and the transition to a completely digital native workforce. PLDT intends not just to survive the future, but to shape it,” he added.
