(Manila Standard via NewsEdge) Philippine dominant carrier PLDT said its consolidated net income grew 3% to 35.1 billion pesos ($716.5 million) in 2006 from P34.1 billion pesos ($696 million) in 2005.
Top company officials, in a news briefing, said the group's core net income also went up 9% to 31.5 billion pesos ($644 million) from 29 billion pesos ($593.6 million).
'For 2007, we estimate our core net income to rise in the range of 32 billion pesos ($655 million) to 33 billion pesos ($675 million),' PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan said.
Pangilinan said the gains were achieved despite the demanding environment last year. 'We expected 2006 to be a challenging year for us as indeed it was--both the operating and competitive environments proved to be demanding,' he said.
The group said financial performance last year 'benefited from the reversal of earlier provisions made in connection with an onerous contract relating to ACeS satellite, offset by lower foreign exchange translation gains and lower benefit from the recognition of certain deferred tax assets, additional depreciation expense as well as higher asset impairment charges.'
The company earlier renegotiated its contract with ACeS (Asia Cellular Satellite International Limited), a consortium that runs a satellite-based communications system, providing services to subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region.
The company's consolidated service revenues rose 3% to 125.1 billion pesos ($2.56 billion) last year, despite the 6.8% appreciation of the peso, which it said, negatively impacted 35% of the group's revenues that were dollar-linked.
Consolidated EBITDA improved by 3% to 79.6 billion pesos ($1.6 billion) while EBITDA margin remained stable, it said.
The group said consolidated balance sheet continued to strengthen with consolidated debt balances down to $1.76 billion. Net debt as of end-December stood at $1.2 billion.
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