Peso rise hits Philippine telecom leader's profits

Philippine Long Distance Telephone said Tuesday the net profit dipped 1.75 percent year on year in the first half of this year, hit by the pesos strength against the US dollar. Unaudited net income for the six months to June fell to 21.299 billion pesos ($507.47 million), compared with 21.679 billion pesos in the first half of last year, president and chief executive Napoleon Nazareno said in a statement. "We expect revenues to remain under pressure for the near term," Nazareno said. Revenues fell 3.31 percent to 70.78 billion pesos. PLDT's mobile phone voice charges dropped 7.0 percent to 19.9 billion pesos and short text message volumes fell 10 percent, even as subscribers rose five percent to 47.8 million. The firm has in the past blamed the rise of social network sites such as Facebook on declining revenues in these areas. Company chairman Manuel Pangilinan said 26 percent of PLDT's service revenues were linked to the US currency, and the rise of the peso this year cut revenues by 0.9 billion pesos. The dollar has lost about seven percent against the pesos over the past year. Orlando Vea, an adviser for PLDT's wireless unit Smart Telecommunications, said the group is pinning its hopes on the Internet, with the bulk of its capital spending directed at improving its broadband and wireless networks. The company has been offering free access to the social networking site Facebook on its high-end mobile phones, Vea said. "Broadband remains our top priority as we believe there is much room to expand on this front." PLDT shares ended two pesos lower at 2,398 pesos before the announcement.