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Thursday 4 November 9:29 PM
UPDATE:Philippine PLDT Expects Record PHP24B Net Pft '04MANILA (Dow Jones)--Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PHI.PH), or PLDT, expects the steady increase in its mobile-phone subscribers to push this year's net profit to a record 24 billion pesos ($426 million), more than double what it made in 2003 and far higher than market expectations. "PHP24 billion is a number that we're comfortable with," company chairman Manuel Pangilinan said Thursday at a briefing on PLDT's third-quarter and nine-month performance. Last year, PLDT, the Philippines' biggest telecommunications company, recorded an all-time high net profit of PHP11.18 billion. The latest earnings guidance for 2004 is higher than the PHP22 billion PLDT forecast when it released first-half earnings, and above its previous projection for a net profit of around PHP18 billion. The PHP24 million forecast also exceeds the PHP21.59 billion average forecast of 14 brokerage firms surveyed by Thomson One Analytics. For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, PLDT reported a net profit of PHP8.78 billion, including extraordinary gains of nearly PHP2.7 billion, from a restated net profit of PHP733 million in the year-ago period. The one-time gains arose from PLDT's early adoption of two new international accounting standards, and by its cellular unit Smart Communication Inc. taking on the debts of and absorbing PLDT affiliate Pilipino Telephone Corp. (PLTL.PH) in the quarter. For the nine months to Sept. 30, PLDT's net profit, excluding one-time items, more than doubled to PHP18.27 billion, from a restated net profit of PHP9.24 billion in the year-earlier period. Including one-time gains, PLDT said its nine-month net profit would have amounted to PHP20.01 billion. "We are pleased with the results. It shows that there is still upside in the cellular phone market," said RCBC Securities research head Lourdes Dipasupil. With the impact of the new accounting standards on PLDT's future earnings still uncertain, Pangilinan said the company excluded one-time items in projecting its full-year profit. He said PLDT could in the fourth quarter easily match its average quarterly net profit, excluding extraordinary gains, of PHP6 billion. Shares of PLDT ended 0.4% lower Thursday at PHP1,400 as investors sold on the news. The stock rose to a record intraday high of PHP1,505 last month on anticipation of strong interim results and outlook for PLDT.
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