Manuel Pangilinan —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Debt watcher Moody’s Ratings affirmed the “Baa2” issuer rating of PLDT Inc., suggesting moderate credit risk, as the telco giant registers strong financial standing.
Moody’s also issued a stable outlook for PDLT’s credit rating, which means the company’s creditworthiness will likely stay the same over the next 12 months.
“The affirmation of PLDT’s rating reflects its leading market position, healthy margins and improving leverage trend,” said Nidhi Dhruv, vice president and senior credit officer at Moody’s.
The credit analytics firm noted that PLDT has a 44-percent share of mobile subscribers and more than a 50-percent share of market revenues as of end-December 2024.
Thanks to data revenues, PLDT saw its top line last year grow by 3 percent to an all-time high of P216.83 billion.
As a result, the company’s net income surged by 21 percent to P32.31 billion.
Wireless unit Smart Communications Inc. has 59 million mobile subscribers as of end-2024 while total fiber subscribers stood at 3.4 million.
PLDT Group’s fiber business caters to 18.5 million homes while the combined 5G and 45 network covers about 97 percent of the population.
Capital outlays
Dhruv said the company’s financial position could improve with lower capital spending over the next two years but “commitment to high shareholder returns will continue to strain cash flows.”
The Manuel Pangilinan-led company earmarked P68 billion to P73 billion in capital expenditure this year, which is lower compared with what it had spent in 2024 at P78.2 billion.
The telco will spend on building new cell sites, upgrading existing facilities and deploying home fiber ports, in addition to undersea cable systems and data centers.
On reducing debt levels, Dhruv noted PLDT’s move to unload non-core assets for additional cash flow.
PLDT sold over 2,000 telco towers in the past two years. More asset sales might be finalized this year.
Also, the telco has considered selling a minority stake in its data center business. It has had talks with two potential foreign buyers which, however, transactions did not prosper.
While Pangilinan, PLDT’s chair, said they were still entertaining this idea, the tycoon recently said they might reconsider given the potential value of the business.