PLDT banks on late rebound after flat H1

MANILA, Philippines — PLDT Inc. is banking on a stronger second half after first-half core income held steady at P17.3 billion, as data and broadband growth offset declines in legacy services and telecom operations.

In its first-half results disclosed Thursday, PLDT said net service revenues, excluding interconnection costs, inched up 1 percent to P97.8 billion, while gross service revenues increased 2 percent to P108.7 billion.

READ: PLDT netted P8.9B in Q1 on stable revenues

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“Growth remains measured, but we are optimistic that the second half of the year will be better, as we build on our momentum and focus on executing with discipline,” PLDT and Smart chair and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said.

Data and broadband revenues reached P84 billion, accounting for 86 percent of net service revenues, compared with 85 percent a year earlier. Excluding the drag from legacy services, net service revenues grew 2 percent.

Reported net income stood at P16.4 billion, while telco core income reached P16.6 billion.

PLDT said its overall core income was partly supported by the sustained profitability of digital banking arm Maya, which helped offset higher depreciation and amortization expenses and softer telco operating results.

Maya contributed P559 million to PLDT’s core income in the first half, as the digital bank ended June with P86 billion in deposits and P39 billion in loans.

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Despite the stable first-half performance, Pangilinan declined to provide full-year guidance, saying the improvement seen in July was not yet enough to crystallize PLDT’s outlook for 2026.

Growing data center biz

“July was a better month for us across the board, but I don’t think one month equates to a year,” Pangilinan said at a briefing on Thursday. “It’s not enough time to give us a basis for full-year profit outlook because a lot of it depends on expectations of GDP growth in the second half.”

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On the data center front, PLDT’s Vitro Inc. grew 13 percent amid demand from hyperscalers, enterprises and the public sector. Vitro currently has 34 megawatts (MW) of utilized capacity across nine data centers, against a total IT-ready capacity of 62.4 MW.

PLDT said its data center business remains the largest in the Philippines, cornering a third of the market.

READ: PLDT’s Vitro beefs up internet exchange tie-ups

Vitro president and CEO Victor Genuino said the company expects growth from rising hyperscaler interest, including Amazon Web Services, and rules requiring sensitive government data to stay in the Philippines.

Genuino said Vitro is also keeping its fourth-quarter timeline for its planned $400-million real estate investment trust listing.

In the first half, PLDT cut capital expenditures to P20.7 billion from P27.4 billion a year earlier. Its consolidated net debt stood at P287.3 billion as of end-June, with its net debt-to-Ebitda ratio at 2.6 times.

PLDT also sold P300 million worth of assets during the first half as part of efforts to pare down debt. /pai