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Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) said on Tuesday its quarterly profits jumped 49 percent, besting market estimates, helped by earnings from its investment in Manila Electric.
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PLDT, the country's most valuable firm, said it was keeping its core earnings guidance at 41 billion pesos ($861 million) this year, up 8 percent from 2008, despite a cautious outlook on consumer spending after recent strong typhoons that hit the Philippines' main island of Luzon.
But it revised down by 1 percent its revenue guidance for this year to 146 billion pesos.
"While we anticipate the usual boost in the fourth quarter from holiday spending, we expect that this may be somewhat dampened as the recent typhoons caused extensive damage all around," company chairman Manuel Pangilinan said in a statement.
The PLDT group is facing a tough environment with revenue growth challenged by stiff competition and some changes in telecoms regulation.
The group is hoping recent investments in a local broadcasting firm and in the country's largest power retailer Manila Electric Co (Meralco) will fortify its dominance of the domestic telecommunications market.
It is in the middle of a battle for control of Meralco with local conglomerate San Miguel Corp, a new entrant in the local telecoms business.
Pangilinan said the company recognised earnings of 361 million pesos from its investment in Meralco since July.
"If Meralco achieves its full-year targets, then we should be able to record a significant contribution for the group starting this year," he said.
PLDT, owned by Hong Kong's First Pacific, Japan's NTT Communications and NTT DoCoMo, said it saw net income of 10.3 billion pesos ($216 million) in the July-to-September period against 6.9 billion pesos a year ago, higher than analysts' profit forecast of 9.9 billion pesos,
according to Thomson Reuters.
Analysts expect PLDT's 2009 net profit to jump 18.2 percent to 40.9 billion pesos, based on Thomson Reuters, as spending related to preparations ahead of the May 2010 presidential polls boost earnings.
Core earnings, which strip out currency and derivatives gains, climbed 11 percent in the third quarter from a year ago to 10.1 billion pesos.
Service revenues in July to September climbed 1 percent from a year earlier to 35.6 billion pesos. Mobile phone operations accounted for nearly two-thirds of total revenues in the first nine months of 2009.
PLDT shares were down 0.77 percent after the results announcement, underperforming a 0.26 percent drop in the benchmark stock index.
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