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Wednesday, March 02, 2005
PLDT makes record P28-B profit, declares dividend
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) group announced a record profit of P28 billion for 2004 and the restoration of dividends to common shareholders at P14 per share.
Payment of the dividend will be made on May 12 to shareholders on record as of March 31, PLDT told the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The group’s performance was driven by the robust performance of its cellular units, which were responsible for subscriber net additions of 6.2 million, bringing the combined subscriber base of subsidiaries Smart Communications Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) to 19.2 million at the end of last year.
Not counting the gain on the debt exchange transaction completed in July 2004, the normalized consolidated net income was P25.2 billion, up 237 percent from the restated net income of P7.5 billion reported in 2003.
Service revenues for the PLDT group rose 14 percent to P115 billion.
Free cash flow grew 65 percent to P37.3 billion, enabling the fixed line business to reduce its debts by $500 million, surpassing its target of $350 million.
In the cellular business, PLDT maintained a market share of 58 percent.
Consolidated cellular profit nearly doubled to P23.3 billion from P12 billion.
Piltel accounted for P4.9 billion of the income, reversing its loss of P3.4 billion in 2003. This marks the first time Piltel has reported a profit since 1996. (CTL)
(March 2, 2005 issue)
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