The Philippines' PLDT has reported a 12% increase in 2012 net profit to 35.5 billion pesos ($872.2 million), in its first full-year results since acquiring rival operator Digitel.
Consolidated service revenue grew 10% year-on-year to 169.3 billion pesos. Wireless revenue jumped 15% to 117.4 billion pesos thanks to the inclusion of Digitel's Sun Cellular mobile brand.
PLDT completed the 69.2 billion peso ($1.7 billion) purchase of a controlling stake in Digitel in October 2011, after regulators finally approved the deal.
But higher costs associated with staff reductions and promotional activity led PLDT's core net income to decline 4% to 39 billion pesos in 2012.
PLDT's mobile subscriber base increased by 6.2 million for 2012 to 69.9 million. Of these, 15.7 million came from Sun Cellular, 25.5 million from its main Smart mobile brands and 28.5 million from its Talk N Text value brand. Postpaid net adds grew 133,000 to a combined 2.3 million.
The company said its 3G network now covers 71% of the Philippines' population, and that it has 1,000 LTE sites operational.
Fixed line subs grew to 2.1 million, with fixed service revenues growing 4% to 58.8 billion pesos. Broadband and internet revenues grew 26% year-on-year to 23.7 billion pesos, with customer numbers growing 11% to 3.3 million.
PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the results for the year – and particularly the second half – are encouraging.
“[But] while I believe the bottom is likely to be behind us and we have successfully defended our market share in the last few quarters, much still has to be done,” he said.
He added that for 2013, the company is forecasting that its core net profit will grow by around 1 billion pesos to 38.3 billion.