PLDT prepares for 3rd telco player, to spend historic amount in 2018

PLDT Inc. is allotting a “historic high” amount of money to capital expenditure in 2018, as it prepares for the entry of a third telecom player early next year.

“We will announce a historic high in capex next year, north of P50 billion,” PLDT CEO and President Manuel Pangilinan told reporters in Taguig City on Wednesday.

The company will be able to finance up to P40 billion, with PLDT raising the rest of the money by selling assets, Pangilinan noted.

“The normal level of around P40 billion, the EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) can handle that,” he said.

“There's an incremental capex of about P10 billion, we will fund through the sale of assets,” he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte said he wants the third telecommunications company up and running by the first quarter of 2018 and warned the courts against interfering with progress by issuing restraining orders.

Earlier this month, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar revealed that China Telecom Corporation Limited has been chosen by the Chinese government to enter the Philippine telecommunications industry.

“Kami naman, we’re spectators lang. We’re just waiting for that to happen, trying to get ready in case it happens as early as the first quarter,” Pangilinan said.

“It's difficult to predict what China Tel would wish to do here ... Maybe until it happens we don’t know exactly what it is they want to do,” he added. — VDS, GMA News