MANILA - PLDT said its telco core net income in the first quarter of the year reached P9.3 billion, up 8 percent or P700 million from the same period last year.

The company said this was mainly due to higher EBITDA partly negated by an increase in financing costs and tax provisions.

Reported Income meanwhile reached P9.8 billion, up 9 percent year-on-year.

PLDT said it booked gross service revenues of P52.2 billion, up 5 percent, while consolidated service revenues were up 3 percent at 48.7 billion.

Manuel Pangilinan, PLDT and Smart Chairman and CEO said the company expects consolidated service revenues and EBITDA to grow in the mid single-digit range.

“Our guidance for our Telco Core Income is north of P35 billion,” Pangilinan said.

As of the end of March 2024, Smart had registered 59 million mobile subscribers.

PLDT said its fintech subsidiary Maya increased its depositor base by 95 percent year-on-year to 3.4 million and deposit balances by 40 percent to P29 billion as of end-March 2024.

It said that as of December 2023, Maya accounted for 51 percent of the depositor base of the digital banking industry.

“Since its launch, it had disbursed P34 billion in loans to close to a million borrowers as of end-March 2024,” PLDT said.

Maya is now offering banking services to businesses, allowing merchants to open their business deposit accounts digitally and offering uncollateralized working capital loans up to P2 million, the company added. 

"While we recognize the realities of market saturation and higher capital expenditures as factors in slowing growth, we do not accept them as excuses for PLDT and Smart to stop delivering value to our stakeholders," Pangilinan added.