PLDT Q1 2025 Earnings Report

PLDT EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.71
• Consensus EPS: $0.73
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.02
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

PLDT Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $991.52 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

PLDT Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 5/15/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, May 15, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 3:30AM ET

PLDT (NYSE:PHI) provides telecommunications and digital services in the Philippines. The company operates through three segments: Wireless, Fixed Line, and Others. It offers cellular mobile, Internet broadband distribution, operations support, software development, and satellite information and messaging services; and sells Wi-Fi access equipment. The company also provides fixed line telecommunications services; business infrastructure and solutions; intelligent data processing and implementation, and data analytics insight generation services; and information and communications infrastructure for Internet-based services, e-commerce, customer relationship management, and information technology (IT) related services. In addition, it offers managed IT outsourcing, Internet-based purchasing, IT consulting and professional, and bills printing and other related value-added services; distributes Filipino channels and content services; and provides full-services customer rewards and loyalty programs. Further, the company engages in the sale of mobile handsets, broadband data routers, tablets, and accessories; and cross-border digital platforms. Additionally, it provides gaming support services; mobile internet and broadband, and data services; content provider and develops mobile application; IT solution; data and network; domestic leased lines; alternative messaging solutions, such as over-the-top services, social media, and messenger application; inbound roaming and other services; mobile prepaid and postpaid services; and fixed wireless broadband services. The company was formerly known as Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and changed its name to PLDT Inc. in July 2016. PLDT Inc. was incorporated in 1928 and is headquartered in Makati City, the Philippines.

PLDT Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Presentation

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I'm Jingay Nabrales, Head of Investor Relations here at PLDT. It's my pleasure to welcome you to our first quarter financial and operations results briefing. Joining us today to share insights into PLDT's performance and strategic direction are Smart Communications Chief Operating Officer, Voin Marquez PLDT Chief Operating Officer, Jimenez Junior PLDT Chief Financial Officer, Mr.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Danny Yu, PLDT Chief Officer, Victorino Aquino, PLDT Chief Legal Counsel, Attorney, John DeVanesha Clabo. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that we will have a Q and A session session after the presentation. You may submit your questions via MS Team's Q and A panel or you may also raise your hand, and we will unmute you at that time. To start, I'd like to invite our CFO, Mr. Danny Yu, to walk us through PLDT's financial performance for the first quarter.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Good afternoon, everyone. Allow me to present PLDT's first quarter performance covering key results and business highlights.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Net service revenue was slightly

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

up year on year. On gross basis, our revenue reached billion, up 2% from last year. EBITDA grew by 2% to R27.9 billion, driven by continued strength in our fiber and ICT segments, coupled with prudent cost management. Telco core income was recorded at billion dollars down 6% year on year, reflecting increased depreciation linked to recent strategic investment in network infra coupled with related financing costs. Core income was steady at billion dollars driven by Maya's positive earning contribution as it turned profitable this quarter.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

As we move forward, we will continue to pursue steady revenue growth, disciplined expense management, asset monetization and prudent capital allocation. All BT's net service revenue growth reflects stable demand across our key business segments, mobile data, fiber, corporate data and ICT. Starting with Home, revenue rose by 4% year on year to billion, thanks to continued fiber demand. Fiber now accounts for 97% of home revenues, up from 92% in 2024 as we steadily migrate legacy subscribers. In Enterprise, total revenue remained steady at 11,900,000,000.0 year on year with a slight 1% uptick in corporate data and ICT revenues.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Within this segment, ICT stands out growing 16% year on year to billion dollars now accounting for over 22% of enterprise revenues, up from 19 a year ago. Although our connectivity business is navigating a transitional phase, we are actively building a pipeline of new opportunities by leveraging our emerging technologies. Lastly, on mobile, revenues were down slightly at billion dollars due to lower packet Wi Fi usage as customers shifted to smartphone or fixed data access. Some prepaid packages available in the first quarter of twenty twenty four were also adjusted, leading to less headline growth, but better fundamentals. We're also encouraged by rapid five gs adoption and a steady rise in data traffic, which point towards improved monetization and growth moving forward.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Mobile data, fiber, corporate data and ICT, which now account for 89% of total revenues from 88% in 2024, continued to expand, offsetting legacy revenues declines. Excluding legacy services, net service revenues grew by 2%. Now let's take a closer look at home segment. Home revenue rose 4% year on year, reaching 15,200,000,000.0. This growth was mainly driven by fiber, which posted a healthy 7% increase to billion.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Our shift from legacy to fiber is progressing well, with fiber now representing 97% of total home revenues, up significantly from 92% in 2024. We also added 101,000 new net new subscribers this quarter compared to negative net additions a year ago. This improvement came from stronger network coverage and expanded port availability from recent investments. ARPU remained stable at around fourteen ninety three, reflecting our success in bundling high value products, while managing churn effectively. Our churn rate of less than 2% remains among the lowest in the industry.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Looking ahead, we will continue to expand our fiber footprint with targeted initiatives and diversified offerings. Turning now to Enterprise, the unit delivered steady results with total revenues at R11.9 billion dollars Corporate data and ICT on the other hand improved by 1% to billion dollars This growth was tempered by the impact of lost Pogo connectivity as the industry shut down last year. With that said, ICT business continues to perform well growing at 16% compared to the same period last year. Managed IT services expanded 101%, cybersecurity services rose by 69%, credit scoring climbed by 48% and data center collocation revenues jumped 37%. As a result, ICT now makes up over 22% our enterprise revenues going to 19% year ago.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

We're working on new opportunities, leveraging our expense in advantage, data centers, network application programming, and AI driven. Additionally, the recently activated Asia Direct further strengthens our competitive advantage, enhancing international capacity and network resilience for enterprise customers. Turning to the individual segment, total revenues came in at 21,300,000,000.0, down slightly by 1% year on year, as we continue to see customer shift away from pocket Wi Fi towards smartphone based data usage. Mobile data revenues, on the other hand, were stable at billion, impacted partially by the termination of long validity offers that front loaded revenues in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. Despite relatively flat revenues, underlying trends remain encouraging.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Five gs data traffic surged 81% year on year. Five gs device adoption also showed robust growth, up 60% quarter on quarter. The ongoing shift to five gs has significantly improved our network efficiency and freed up additional LTE capacity, resulting in a better overall customer experience. We expect this increased five gs adoption and improved network efficiency to help stabilize revenues and drive future growth in the individual segments. PLDT delivered $7,900,000,000 in EBITDA for the first quarter of twenty twenty five, a 2% increase year on year, demonstrating our ongoing efforts in managing costs, while maintaining a resilient revenue base.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

OpEx including subsidy and provisions declined by $300,000,000 to $86,100,000,000 reinforcing operational discipline. Our EBITDA margin remained strong at 52%. Telco core income was at 8,800,000,000.0 lower by 6% year on year, mainly due to increased depreciation from network expansion and associated financing costs. Our core income on the other hand held steady year on year at billion dollars supported by Maya's positive contribution. A key highlight this quarter is Maya turning profitable, marking a significant milestone.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Maya contributed $127,000,000 in net income, a clear turnaround from prior year's losses, powered by robust loan growth, strong momentum in deposits and increased payments volume. Now let's move on to CapEx and our debt profile. For the first quarter of twenty twenty five, our CapEx stood at 10,800,000,000.0 lower compared to last year resulting in a reduced CapEx intensity of 20%. This lower expense is partly due to timing as a significant portion of our project completions will occur in the second half of the year. Our CapEx guidance for 2025 is adjusted slightly to 68% to seventy

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

the

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

priority areas. Thus LTE and five g upgrade, Inshaq table and African. As well as upgrade and modernization of network and IT to improve our quality of service. While we work on decreasing CapEx, we are committed to deliver greater outcomes through efficient use of capital and strengthen negotiations with contractors and suppliers. Let's review our debt profile.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Our net debt at the March stood at $270,700,000,000 resulting in a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.48 times, slightly improved from 2.52 times at the end of twenty twenty four. Our debt maturity profile remains well balanced with 52% of total debt maturing beyond 02/1930. The average debt maturity stands at six point five years. We maintain prudent risk management. Foreign currency exposure remains low with just 5% of total debt unhedged.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Importantly, PLDT retains investment grade credit ratings of BBB from S and P Global and BAA2 from Moody's, underscoring investor confidence in our financial health. Looking forward, we remain committed to generating positive free cash flow by 2026 and continue working towards reducing our leverage targeting around a 2.0x net debt to EBITDA ratio over the medium term. Now I'd like to shift gears and share some exciting developments from two of our key growth drivers beyond traditional telco. One is Virtual, our state of the art data center business and Maya, our fintech driver, both continue to demonstrate strong momentum and reinforcing PIADT's commitment to innovation and digital leadership. Our V2 Data Centers, particularly our newly energized hyperscale facility in Santa Rosa, represent a major strategic step positioning PLAT at the forefront of Philippines digital infra landscape.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Now let's watch this short video to give you a closer look at Vintro Santa Rosa and why we believe it will play a central role in supporting

of every aspect of our lives through artificial intelligence. Keeping in step with The Philippines' move towards being the next digital destination of the region, This year, VITRO Incorporated unveils The Philippines' First AI ready hyperscale data center, VITRO Santa Rosa. Designed to power tomorrow's digital demands, VITRO Santa Rosa delivers an impressive 50 megawatts of power capacity. This immense power ensures unparalleled performance for enterprises, hyperscalers and AI workloads alike. With a Tier three certification, VITRO Santa Rosa guarantees 99.99% service level agreement.

That's true reliability you can count on. Its resilient power, cooling and connectivity ensure your mission critical operations never miss a beat. At its core lies a diverse network infrastructure equipped with a triple route domestic fiber network. VITRO Santa Rosa ensures continuous operations with the lowest latency and maximum resilience. Step into a thriving digital ecosystem where enterprise, cloud and AI data seamlessly connect and synergize, where everything your business needs is within reach and where your data takes center stage.

And with its AI ready infrastructure, VITRO Santa Rosa is prepared to unlock the true potential of artificial intelligence. Hosted in VITRO Santa Rosa, EPLDT is the first to bring NVIDIA powered GPU servers to The Philippines. EPLDT can now offer GPU as a service, boasting of enhanced security and reduced latency, ideal for critical AI tasks that require fast response times. With EPLBT's GPU as a Service, enterprises and government agencies can access powerful computing on a pay per use basis, making AI adoption faster and cost efficient. From training complex models to powering real time applications, VITRO Santa Rosa is where AI thrives and connects to the rest of the country.

Connected to the country's widest domestic and international fiber network, Santa Rosa serves as a gateway to the rest of The Philippines and the world. Vito Santalosa isn't just a data center. It's the home of AI and hyperconnectivity, powering the digital future today. We

go

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

As you have seen in the video, VITRO Santa Rosa represents a significant step forward, not just for PLDD, but also for The Philippines' broader digital ecosystem. Officially inaugurated last month by President Marcos, this pioneering facility highlights our commitment to powering the nation's digital transformation. During the inauguration, President Marcos underscored that in today's world, data has become as essential as water and electricity. He emphasized the critical importance of continuously strengthening our data infra, particularly with safeguarding sensitive and confidential information. VITRO Santa Rosa is unique position to meet these demands significantly enhances our ability to support the nation digital growth.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

I'm also pleased to share another strategic in file milestone, the recent launch of the Asia Direct Cable. This new subsea cable spanning 9,400 kilometers significantly enhances PLDT's international connectivity with a substantial two twenty seven terabits per second capacity. The Asia Direct cable offers a much low latency connections, particularly between China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. This further strengthens PLDT's position as the country's largest fixed line network provider with the most extensive set of international gateway facilities. For PLDT, this investment translates to strategic advantages, ensuring faster, more reliable and direct access to our state of the art facilities such as PetroSanta Rosa.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

In short, the Asia Direct Cable is more than income. It's a core enabler of future revenue growth, service reliability and market leadership. Now let's turn to another key growth engine, Maya, our fintech driver. Let me start by framing what makes Maya uniquely positioned for sustainable growth and profitability. The short answer is, it's unique all in one ecosystem that combines payment, banking, lending into a seamless platform for both consumers and businesses.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

This integrated model creates efficiency, scale, recurring engagement, which not only accelerates our growth, but also strengthens our pathway to continued profitability. We believe that this comprehensive ecosystem gives Maya a clear structural advantage, enabling it to capture long term value, while continuing to deliver innovative inclusive financial services to millions of Filipinos. I'll now take you through Maya's performance for the first quarter of twenty twenty five. Here you will see how this ecosystem approach continues to drive results across deposits, lending, payments and customer engagement. In the first quarter of twenty twenty five, Maya achieved positive net income.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

This marked its first full profitable quarter, a key milestone for its growth momentum. Paya continues to lead as both the number one digital bank and the number one merchant acquirer in The Philippines. The company has seen impressive momentum across key metrics. 6,800,000 bank customers, up 88% year on year, reinforcing Maya's position as the most adopted digital banking platform in the country. 1,800,000 borrowers, doubling year on year driven by strong credit demand and AI powered digital lending, billion dollars in total deposits, representing a 49% year on year increase and maintaining Maya's lead in deposit market share among digital banks and finally, 120,000,000 in cumulative loans disbursed since inception.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

On the payment side, Maya also retains the largest market share in card acquiring transactions, reinforcing its leadership in both online and in store merchant payments. This potent combination of scaling adoption, growing credit, healthy deposits and profitability reflects Maya's unique position as The Philippines leading integrated digital banking and payments ecosystem. Now let me break down Maya's banking performance in more detail. The bank continues to see strong growth in consumer deposits, which reached billion by March, representing a 49% year on year increase. This is a clear indicator of user trust and consistent engagement on the platform.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Since 2022, deposits have nearly tripled. Alongside this, Maya has also scaled lending significantly. In the first quarter of twenty twenty five alone, it disbursed S28 billion dollars in loans, bringing total disbursed sales since inception S220 billion Now loan book quality remains solid. Maya's loan outstanding balance stood at R21 billion dollars at the March with asset quality well managed. Its NPL ratio was 3.8% below both digital banking and broader industry averages.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

All in all, Maya is not just growing, it's also doing so responsibly with strong fundamentals in both deposit and credit performance. Maya's growth story isn't just about selling products. It's also about deepening engagement in creating a platform that enables our partners to access a tech savvy, highly engaged customer base. In the first quarter of twenty twenty five, Maya expanded its consumer platform through high impact collaborations across lifestyle, entertainment and insurance. Some examples include the following: the integration of Palmini application within Maya that offers users a more seamless travel and loyalty experience.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Maya now provides accessible insurance products directly in application through SyncLight rather. All all through our partnership with Pepsi Cola, Maya is enabling both payment processing and working capital loans for their network of more than 200,000 Sari Sari stores and distributors. Are dealt with as ABS CBN and GMA for Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Indention. This campaign drove a 3% increase in viewership compared to previous seasons and significantly boosted in app user activity via interactive voting features. Maya is also seeing strong traction in consumer credit.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

It has issued approximately 200,000 credit cards since its launch in August of twenty twenty four. These moves stranded Maya's position not just as a fintech and digital bank, but as a daily financial partner helping Filipinos spend, save, invest and borrow. Now before we close out, I'd like to share some updates on sustainability as we continue to expand our efforts to embed this in our business. During the quarter, PLDT and Smart enacted biodiversity policies that commit to no net deforestations and no net loss in forest cover. As we roll out our network facilities, these policies ensure that we comply with environmental regulations and do not negatively impact the environment and local communities.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

PLDT and Smart continue to strengthen initiatives to keep our customers safe and protect children online. This includes the buffering of access to malicious content. With the election of PLD to governing council of the Philippine Business Collisions on Women Empowerment and of our Chief Sustainability Officer to the Board of Trustees of the Global Compact Network Philippines, we have new opportunities to collaborate with like minded institutions and champion sustainability in business. Now that concludes our prepared remarks for PLDT's first quarter performance. At this point, we would be happy to open the floor for your questions.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, Danny, for your insights on the group initiatives and key developments across our different business units. As you've seen today, there are some near term challenges, but we do remain confident in our market position supported by our strong operational fundamentals, strategic investments in digital infrastructure and promising growth trajectory in Viya. I would like to open the floor to your questions. To those who would like to submit their questions, you may use the q and a box in your screen or you may also raise your hand and I will unmute your mic for, the second. Right.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

So we have a raised hand from Arthur Pineda of Citi. I'll meet you here.

[Arthur Pineda, Head of Asia Pacific Telecoms & Singapore Research at Citi]

Hi. Thank you. Sorry. Can you hear me?

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Yes.

[Arthur Pineda, Head of Asia Pacific Telecoms & Singapore Research at Citi]

Thanks for the opportunity. Three questions, please. Firstly, on the enterprise segment. You mentioned that there were some Pogo related revenue pressures in the first quarter, which is pulling it down. I'm just wondering, is this all done?

[Arthur Pineda, Head of Asia Pacific Telecoms & Singapore Research at Citi]

Or do you still see further downturns from this segment? Basically trying to figure out if we should start to see enterprise accelerating into the following quarters given the new capacities from data center and all? Or are there still some revenue pull from Pogo cancellations? Second question I had is with regard to VITRO. Can you provide color on the take up levels for the new capacities?

[Arthur Pineda, Head of Asia Pacific Telecoms & Singapore Research at Citi]

Have you actually signed anchor tenants for this? I'm wondering how much the contribution could be for profits and revenues for the year? And third question is on Maya. Where do you see the profit momentum as trending for the balance of the year? Should we see this as further expanding on a hockey stick basis?

[Arthur Pineda, Head of Asia Pacific Telecoms & Singapore Research at Citi]

Or is it a gradual improvement in terms of momentum? Thank you.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, Arthur. Okay. So you have three questions here. I guess we'll start with your question on Pogo. We have Blum Spaneda here who heads our enterprise business.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Go ahead, Blum.

[Patricio S. Pineda, SVP & Enterprise Business Head at PLDT]

Yes. Hi. Thank you for the question. So on Pogo, as I think you'll remember, Pogo was shut down actually in July of last year. So from that standpoint, we're still anticipating a continuation of the impact, especially from a same period last year compare on BOGO revenues as well as other connectivity programs that were discontinued over that time.

[Patricio S. Pineda, SVP & Enterprise Business Head at PLDT]

So we should still see some drag maybe until about Q3. But I think when you look at the performance, a lot of the programs that the team has been running has helped us at least keep it flat and make up a lot of that revenue gap. But there will still be some drag going into at least For the second part of the question, I will turn over to Victor Hino Ueno, who's the President and CEO of UPLA Can Beetrove.

[Victor S. Genuino, President & CEO - ePLDT and VITRO at PLDT]

Thank you, Blons. Thank you, Arthur, for the question.

[Victor S. Genuino, President & CEO - ePLDT and VITRO at PLDT]

Happy to share for Vito Santarosa, we've actually landed a big hyperscale customer of ours that's already availing of four megawatts of capacity. Because it's the first hyperscale data center in the country, we've been getting a lot of interest from Western and Chinese hyperscalers as well. There are ongoing discussions with them together with some big enterprises to help fill up the capacity in Santa Rosa. Thank you.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, Piboy. And for the question in Maya, we have

[Executive]

Hi, Jingai. Can you hear

[Executive]

me?

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Yes.

[Executive]

Hi. Thanks, Arthur, for that question. I think what we have seen is that we have been consistently been reducing losses throughout last year and have now turned profitable. One of the reasons for that is that we have fairly strong operating leverage in the business. And so we should continue to increase in the margins and profitability as we continue to scale the business.

[Executive]

I don't think you should expect a hockey stick growth, but a more sort of steady and gradual margin improvement over

[Arthur Pineda, Head of Asia Pacific Telecoms & Singapore Research at Citi]

Understood. Sorry, if I could just have one follow-up. It's with regard to the mobile business. I'm just wondering what the thoughts are into the second quarter. Obviously, first quarter was challenging.

[Arthur Pineda, Head of Asia Pacific Telecoms & Singapore Research at Citi]

It's contracting year on year, Q on Q. I'm just wondering, your competitor has been communicating to the market that you've been seeing mobile improvements in the second quarter. Are you seeing similar trends?

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Employee Marcus here who heads our Smart Business. Go ahead.

[Anastacio Martirez, COO at Smart Communications, Inc]

Hi, Arthur. While we see that market has softened, but the more important thing that we're focusing on is that we continue to grow traffic year on year. And this gives us confidence in monetizing demand for the balance here. And our aspiration is to continue to be always better than market. So that will do through innovations and being invested as a network and being invested in product and CX.

[Arthur Pineda, Head of Asia Pacific Telecoms & Singapore Research at Citi]

Thank you very much.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, Arthur. All right. I have a question here from Nikki Frample of Abacus Securities, from the q and a box. So the first question is on Santarosa ESG. So what is the rate of water usage for Vito Santarosa?

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Will the local utility be able to supply the water required as it ramps up? Yiguay?

[Executive]

Yes. Thank you. Thank you for that question. Well, so far, the water utilization level or utilization that we are tracking in Santa Rosa is still at normal levels, similar to other data centers. We expect the water usage to increase once we start onboarding AI specific workloads, which would need to run on liquid cooling technology.

[Executive]

We are in coordination now with the water utility to be able to anticipate and see whether we can already prepare for that eventualities. But so far, with regards to water usage utilization in Santa Rosa, it's still at normal levels.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, Peeboi. Another question from Nikki, and this is in regards to Maya. Can you share interest income on loans as well as your cost of funds, also average loan tenure? Also, the the loans disbursed in the first quarter amounting to 28,000,000 include receivables from the credit card business?

[Executive]

I think we'll be limited in terms of exact disclosure of the numbers to some extent. But yes, the receivables do include the receivables from the credit card business as well. Yes, I mean, we do report numbers on a consistent basis, on a quarterly basis. But at this point, I think it will be difficult for us to talk about loan yields and cost of funds specifically.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

UNIDENTIFIED May I ask, do you have a target loan to deposit ratio?

[Executive]

Jing, I couldn't hear you. I think you're cutting out a little bit. Could you repeat that question?

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Yes. Sorry about that.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

So this is in regards to the loan to deposit ratio of Maya. So what is your target?

[Executive]

Yes. So we will we don't have a specific target loan to deposit ratio, but we will continue to keep a slightly conservative loan to deposit ratio versus some of the traditional banks. I think we are still sort of early days in terms of the stability of the balance sheet and we do run a digital banking business. So I mean, there is no fixed sort of number, but we don't want to see the loan to deposit ratio at least in the near term push very, very high like traditional banks.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Okay. I have a question here for the home segment. So PLDT added a significant number of subscribers this quarter. Do you anticipate this continuing at this pace for the rest of 2025? We have John here who heads our home business.

[Executive]

Yes, hello. Yes, we do anticipate the growth to sustain. In fact, we are looking at the growth path for the balance of year. Our net adds has been improving and we are launching several products and services in rapid succession in the next few months that would address not just elevating our experience, but also expanding our page. So the growth is not one off.

[Executive]

We've actually showed this in five quarters, they sustained growth at increasing increments every quarter. And we expect to sustain this until the end of the year. Thank you.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

I'll answer as well.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Sure. We have Butch Jimenez here, who is our COO. Go ahead, Butch.

[Menardo Jimenez, Executive VP & COO at PLDT]

Okay. Growth, I guess, from just looking at the growth, you really have to look at the either we grow via postpaid or prepaid because that is very significant to the increase in revenue. So, PLDT from a strategic point of view, we're looking at growing primarily our postpaid product because that delivers higher ARPU, lower churn. We will also look at prepaid at a very strategic and deliberate level. But I think if you're going to compare us with other telcos, you have to compare not just the growth of subs, but you also have to compare postpaid versus prepaid.

[Menardo Jimenez, Executive VP & COO at PLDT]

PLDT and Smart, we do have a two barrel shotgun to look at prepaid or to attack prepaid. Aside from prepaid home fiber, we also have fixed wireless that Smart is handling. So I think we have enough weapons to be able to attack the prepaid market effectively while making sure we continue to grow our postpaid market, which is really the bigger driver of revenue for fixed line telco.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

As a follow-up to that question, we have another question on churn trends. How sustainable are these churn trends at current levels? Yes.

[Executive]

Our churn has been showing improvement over time. We have seen our growth has been driven not just by increasing our gross adds and net adds, but also by better managing our churn. Today, do have the best in industry churn rate at a sub-two percent level and we will continue to improve that as we approach the year. Thank you.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you. This next question is for our Wireless segment, specifically on five gs. Looks like five gs adoption has increased materially quarter on quarter. How is your five gs monetization strategy progressing? And any notable ARPU uplift from this?

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Roy?

[Anastacio Martirez, COO at Smart Communications, Inc]

Our focus is still on five gs and building a meaningful and dense five gs coverage. It is also reflected in our double digit five gs traffic growth, and I think you would see that. And the other thing that I'd like to add is that, in fact, we have seen over 60% growth in five gs devices. These two together would bode well for us in the coming months. We have seen, for example, a high double digit growth in five gs traffic.

[Anastacio Martirez, COO at Smart Communications, Inc]

And I can say with Comfort, there's a good double digit percent of traffic in five gs that has been uploaded from four

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

For those who have any other questions, you may raise your hand or you may put your question in the Q and A box. I have this question regarding our depreciation and financing costs. Can we expect depreciation and financing costs to continue increasing at similar levels, or do we expect these to taper off moving forward? Danny, can you take that question?

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

It's going to be almost on the current level.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Just the same?

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

That's right. Even if we're acquiring more. So, basically because the prices are going down, some are gonna be fully depreciated.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

All right. On enterprise, I think this is in regards to the Asia Direct Cable. How is this expected to enhance your competitive advantage? Any quantifiable revenue impact from the go live?

[Patricio S. Pineda, SVP & Enterprise Business Head at PLDT]

Okay. I'll take that. So for Elite Direct Cable, it is a big part of our competitive advantage. When you think about our top tier facilities like VITRO, Santa Rosa, locators are looking, especially international ones are looking for multiple legs to hubs across the region. So the fact, for example, that people look for Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong at minimum, right?

[Patricio S. Pineda, SVP & Enterprise Business Head at PLDT]

Asia Direct Cable addresses that very specifically. And with 27 terabits per second, that's left the right levels for low latency types of workloads and requirements. So a very, very big part of our strategy. It's not a standalone thing by any means, but it is a key enabler of the potential that we're driving to with our data center business.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, Clems. All right, we have John Thames raising his hand of UBS. Go ahead, John. You may ask

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

the question.

[Analyst]

Hi, good afternoon.

[Analyst]

Three questions for me. First is on the prepaid mobile business. There appears to be a softening of subscribers, particularly for Smart in the first quarter. Although I understand that the market is soft, but anything unusual with regards to subscriber acquisition? Second question, on the other hand, is on the postpaid side.

[Analyst]

And I think there is sustained growth momentum at the expense of your competitors. So I guess a bit more clarity on what you think is mostly driving this. Third is on the broadband subscriber trends. Sorry, I missed this earlier, but should we expect an acceleration in revenues beginning 2Q and 3Q given that the net adds in the first quarter were, I guess, stronger than what you've done over the past few quarters? Thank you.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, John. Okay. So I guess we can start with the question on prepaid mobile subscribers. And the softening you said quarter on quarter. Poy, would you like to add some color on those numbers, please?

[Anastacio Martirez, COO at Smart Communications, Inc]

I think it's more to answer that on the issue of subscriber base. I think more on like, would we would that be correct in understanding the question? Because if it's the ARPU, overall ARPU of price is flattish, while the market ARPU is declining minus 6% year on year. And to that extent, I wouldn't put the differentiation on postpaid and prepaid at this point because there's a blip that I've seen personally that trend that we see in the rest of the industry. But in our case, our competitive differentiator is always product innovation, network experience and customer and digital experience.

[Anastacio Martirez, COO at Smart Communications, Inc]

And that's what we're going to build on.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, Boen. I understand also, if I recall correctly, that we did become a little bit stricter regarding our when we churn out some of our prepaid, right? So I guess, John, part of that is also a cleanup versus last quarter in terms of the number of subs. Well, this question is still for you, John's second question. He did note that we are gaining market share from our competitors.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

So he would like to basically gain a little bit more color on how, I guess, what we're doing in order to gain that market share and how sustained you think that would be.

[Anastacio Martirez, COO at Smart Communications, Inc]

I think, yes. I think we attribute that more to our sustainable traffic growth for the last nine quarters. That's traffic is basically what drives monetization. Because when when you have a growth in traffic, you're sure to have engagement, good customer engagement. And we're going to build on that.

[Anastacio Martirez, COO at Smart Communications, Inc]

Year on year, we have grown 6% on network traffic, while the market has declined by 5%. So that signals our success in capturing demand and user engagement. We are hopeful in translating this to revenue through our hyper personalized offers that we are having and will continue to have. By the way, our hyper personalized offers are based on best in class world leaders technology like Adobe and AWS.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, boy. All right. Our last question, and again, this is in regards to our broadband subscriber trends. John, I know you spoke on this a little bit earlier, but can you talk about what we have to look forward during terms of accelerating in that?

[Executive]

Sure, Jay, thank you for that question, John. John, the last few quarters, especially the last four quarters has been very encouraging. We've seen signs, very clear signs that we have a clear path to even more growth, sustainable growth at that. The important thing is that we keep this business on track, focusing on strengthening our core in network and servicing the customer, focusing on elevating the customer experience and expanding our reach. As Butch mentioned, we are not just expanding our reach geographically, we're expanding it to reach more homes as well as more segments in the market.

[Executive]

All this put together, focusing on this would also reduce our churn. Customers tend to stay longer. And given that our business is hyper focused on the postpaid side, we are seeing our ARPUs remain steady at the fourteen ninety six level from Q1 last year, which is a good sign as well that this has not been diluted despite the fact that we've loaded an additional 305,000 subs this March. So it's very encouraging for us and we do see a clear path to revenue growth. Thank you.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, John. We have another question here in the Q and A box from Ziwei Fu of Macquarie. Is there guidance for 2025 net income? And if not, why? It was suggested to be provided at the first quarter results briefing during the full year 2024 briefing.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Danny, would you like to take that?

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

No. Even the softness of the numbers in the first quarter, I think we're unable to provide guidance at this point.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Think MVP also mentioned earlier during the media briefing that it is a very fluid environment at this time. And so we'll put you know, once things are clear, we will provide at that time. Alright. Another question, and this is in regards to PLDT stake in Maya from Nikki Franco. What is the latest on plans to increase PLDT stake in Maya?

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

If this happens at some point this year, will it put back your targets to achieve free cash flow as well as your two times net debt to EBITDA target? Danny?

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Well, even when we invest more in Maya, it's called we might need the help of other affiliates of the first Pacific. So it's not gonna be solely coming from PLDT.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

If it happens.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

If it happens.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

All right. And then we have a question here in the q and a box from Marie Antoinette Delica of Land Bank. Given CLPD's current negative net working capital and debt to equity ratio, what specific strategies and time lines are in place to improve working capital efficiency and optimize the capital structure to achieve a healthier financial position in the short to medium term.

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

Well, our main focus now is asset monetization, which includes copper mining. That's one. Second is the consolidation of central offices, which will result in selling some of the idle properties. The third is continue to look for a strategic partner in EPLET, specifically in data center. So the the time the timing is between now and the next three years.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, D. White. All right. This next question is from Paulo Manansala of COL. I just wanted to ask regarding the mobile business, if you are seeing an intensification of competition?

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Or is the industry softness in mobile driven by something else? Why would you like to take that piece?

[Anastacio Martirez, COO at Smart Communications, Inc]

Well, the softness, I've answered, I think, a while ago. But I think the question is about the trend by which the rest of the industries is experiencing probably is a question, are we going to be the same trend? My answer is we don't see the same trend. In fact, our data traffic continues to grow and we see that this is being done on the back of our strong five gs networks. So we are going to be relying on that for the rest of the balance of the year and in the years to come.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, boy. The next question is in regards to our data center business with Vito Santaracao Energized. Can you comment on the potential enterprise revenue uplift once BSR is fully operational? And also, do you already recognize revenues from current AI workloads? Yigwei?

[Executive]

Thank you. Thank you, Jingai. So as you know, Vito Santa Rosa was just energized recently. It's a 50 megawatt facility that will provide 36 megawatts of IP load divided into 18 data calls of two megawatts each. So far, we have an anchor tenant that's already come in, that's taking on four megawatts of space in Vito Santa Rosa.

[Executive]

But aside from that, we are, again, looking at other hyperscale customers and enterprise customers to come in and fill up the rest of the space that we have. But I think more than that, Jinhai, we're also happy to say that it is not only a hyperscale data center, but it is also an AI ready data center. We are actually AI live. And our definition of AI ready is not a showroom, but actual GPUs that have been deployed and that is currently running live workloads and POCs for PLDT Smart. And we're very excited because in the next few months, we hope to launch a GPU as a service model targeting enterprises to make AI as reachable, accessible and affordable to enterprise customers here in The Philippines.

[Executive]

So we're looking forward to that.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank you, Biboy. All right. This next question is regarding our OpEx. Looks like it has been declining over the past few quarters. Moving forward, is there further room to significantly reduce OpEx?

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Or are we nearing optimal levels?

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

We're nearing optimal level at this

[Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer at PLDT]

point.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Okay. Thank you, Any other questions from the floor? All right. It looks like we have exhausted the questions in the Q and A box as well as the questions that were sent to me earlier.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

If we don't have any further questions, I'd like to thank everybody who's joined us today. We look forward to your continued interest in PLDT, and we look forward to having you again in our next earnings briefing come this August. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you.

[Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations at PLDT]

Thank

Participants

Executives

• Marseille Nograles, Head - Investor Relations
• Danny Yu, Senior VP, CFO & Chief Risk Management Officer
• Patricio S. Pineda, SVP & Enterprise Business Head
• Victor S. Genuino, President & CEO - ePLDT and VITRO
• Menardo Jimenez, Executive VP & COO

Analysts

• Arthur Pineda, Head of Asia Pacific Telecoms & Singapore Research at Citi
• Executive
• Anastacio Martirez, COO at Smart Communications, Inc
• Analyst