PT&T losses shrink to P26.7M after cutting expenses 

LISTED telecommunications services provider Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T) said it managed to reduce its losses for the nine months to September by reducing expenses.

PT&T’s net loss for the nine-month period was P26.7 million, lower than the previous year’s net loss of P40.53 million, the company’s latest financial report shows.

This is “due to savings in non-core expenses,” it noted. “Additional expenses such as recognition of the legal interest rate of 6% per annum on unsettled obligations, as directed by the Rehabilitation Court, and rehab-related expenses affected the net loss for the period,” it added.

Revenue for the period reached P411.22 million, up 18.5% from P347.1 million in the same period last year.

For the nine-month period, the company’s operating revenue from broadband reached P409.3 million, a 19.9% increase over its performance last year.

“Activities for the broadband group included street-level saturations on major nodes, optimization of existing infrastructure in commercial buildings and establishments, and account management of existing subscribers,” the company said.

PT&T noted that its personnel-related expenses for the period amounted to P179.1 million, 8.3% higher than the previous year’s P165.3 million, “as the company prepares its workforce in sustaining growth in connectivity and IT services despite the ongoing pandemic.”

“Due to the implementation of work-from-home arrangement and skeletal workforce last year, premises-related expenses increased to P30.4 million from P27.9 million in the comparative period,” it added.

Meanwhile, selling, general, and administrative expenses went beyond last year’s level from P46.7 million to P52.1 million, together with cost of sales from P50.4 million to P84 million.

“This increase indicates the company’s ability to adapt to the pandemic by investing in operations to support its growing business. The increase in operating costs and expenses is aligned with the company’s strategy and is necessary to sustain its businesses,” PT&T said

For the third quarter, the company reduced its net loss to P10.22 million from a loss of P13.96 million in the same period last year.

Revenue for the period reached P136.11 million, up 13.4% from P120.02 million previously.

Third-quarter expenses increased 6.06% to P141.31 million from P133.24 million in the same period last year.

“The company holds an optimistic view on the Philippines’ broadband industry through our efforts to improve coverage and spur subscriber growth,” PT&T said.

“PT&T aims to expand coverage and upgrade its network infrastructure which will help to cope with the growing demand and ensure that network congestion would be minimized,” it added. — Arjay L. Balinbin