Businessman Manuel Pangilinan said he is willing to let go of his post as president and chief executive of PLDT Inc. if the company recovers by next year.
“If I am quite certain that PLDT has already on a sure footing in terms of this recovery, time to let go. I want to demonstrate I am not here to hold on to my position forever. Like in Meralco (Manila Electric Co.), I gave way to Oscar [Reyes]. Meralco (is okay),” PLDT chairman and president Pangilinan said.
“There have been a few names… one or two folks from abroad already. Of course, there are internal candidates also,” he added.
Pangilinan did not identify the candidates for the new CEO. He earlier named Eric Alberto, PLDT’s chief revenue officer, as one of the candidates.
He earlier said 2017 was a “challenging year” and saw some signs of recovery “but we are not out of the woods yet.”
“So, hopefully, 2018 will be better. It really depends on how well the wireless side performs.(The) decline in international voice (is a given). But I think the decline will be smaller this year compared to previous year. So it would depend whether wireless can recover,” he said.
PLDT’s net income rose 38 percent to P21.87 billion in the first nine months of the year, mostly because of the proceeds from the sale of its shares in Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc and SPi Global Holdings Inc.
PLDT’s consolidated revenues amounted P119.07 billion in the January-to-September period, down 5 precent from P125.37 billion.
In terms of business units, PLDT Home revenues grew 12 percent to P24.3 billion, while Enterprise business posted an 11-percent increase to P25.3 billion.
The Wireless Individual Business posted P44.2 billion in service revenues, 14 percent lower than that of the first three quarters of 2016.
Home and Enterprise combined now account for 47 percent of revenues, surpassing the 41-percent contribution of the Wireless Individual business.
Pangilinan earlier said PLDT would spend over P50 billion in 2018 for mobile and fixed-broadband networks expansion in preparation for the entry of a third player.
“We will announce a historic high in capex [capital expenditure] next year, north of P50 billion. We want to make a statement as well,” he said.
PLDT has programmed P38 billion in capex this year to build an unparalleled integrated fixed and wireless network that will provide customers with a superior data experience.
