New CFO promises to put into order PLDT’s financial affairs

MANILA  -On the heels of a multibillion budget mess, PLDT Inc. has welcomed a new chief financial officer (CFO) who will take on the lead role of straightening the telco’s financial books marred by overspending arising from an aggressive 5G technology campaign.

On Thursday, PLDT named Danny Yu as CFO and chief risk management officer, replacing Anabelle Chua whom the telco said took an early retirement.

Yu’s appointment took effect on May 4 after the board approved the change in management. He was named officer in charge when Chua stepped down last April 16.

Yu, who also previously held other positions including group controller, said he was ready to tackle the P48-billion budget overrun that dragged the company’s 2022 bottom line by 60 percent. The company said the amount has been reduced to P33 billion “net of advances paid” after negotiations with major vendors.

“We’re coming up with a lot of control measures. To sum it up, it is basically to monitor it (capex) closely,” he said during a press briefing in Makati.

Capex

He shared that PLDT had received about P11 billion to P14 billion of the 5G orders—included in its capex—in the first quarter. These are now recognized as property, plant and equipment.

Chief legal counsel Marilyn Victorio-Aquino was elected director effective May 8. She will serve the unexpired term of the late Albert del Rosario.

The telco giant saw its net income in the first quarter dip by 1 percent to P9.02 billion from P9.08 billion in the same period last year as provision for income tax rose by 14 percent to P3.15 billion.

Service revenues improved by 2 percent to P47.1 billion, boosted by its home and enterprise segments. Telco core income grew by 5 percent to P8.6 billion.

It also recorded a capex of P19.3 billion in the first quarter, up 22 percent, which mostly went to investments in infrastructure network and data centers.

As of end-March, PLDT has home fiber subscribers of 3 million. It has deployed 6.1 million fiber ports across 17,900 barangays.

In a separate development, PLDT had filed a notice with the Philippine Competition Commission for its purchase of Sky Cable Corp.’s broadband business. Technical, legal, labor, financial and tax due diligence are currently being done while it awaits the completion of the review.

The telco also declared P12.24 million in cash dividends for all shareholders of its series IV cumulative nonconvertible redeemable preferred stocks. Payments are due on June 15. INQ

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