{"id":320079,"date":"2023-01-03T01:12:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T17:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/?p=320079"},"modified":"2023-01-03T01:15:31","modified_gmt":"2023-01-02T17:15:31","slug":"updates-on-pldts-p48-billion-capex-overrun-telenovela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/updates-on-pldts-p48-billion-capex-overrun-telenovela\/","title":{"rendered":"Updates on PLDT’s P48-billion Capex overrun TELenovela"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PLDT, Inc. (TEL) has spent much of the past two weeks managing the crisis caused by its December 16 disclosure about its P48-Billion capex overrun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its latest “Clarification of News Reports” sent to the PSE, the company denied that it is communicating directly with US law firms that are looking into possible violations of US federal securities laws. TEL maintained that it has a US counsel standing ready to defend in case a suit is filed against the company, implying that it will only face potential lawsuits in court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other disclosures to the exchange and in an analyst briefing held both in-person and remotely, TEL clarified the following points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. The overruns resulted mostly from 5G and fiber equipment procured from Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, and FiberHome. TEL acquired these equipment due to the looming threat of competition from CNVRG and DITO, coupled with the administration of former President Duterte breathing down the telcos\u2019 necks for them to improve service. However, the roll-out and installment of the procured equipment have been delayed due to tepid demand as the price of 5G devices remains out of reach for most Filipinos. The company assures that the equipment are safe in the warehouses of either PLDT or the suppliers. These assets are not expected to be written off, as implied in some reports, but will instead be repurposed for 4G\/LTE or put on standby for the time when 5G take-up improves.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. TEL expects earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation (EBITDA) to remain on track to hit P100 Billion in 2022, as the impact would mostly be on the depreciation line in the income statement (the D in EBITDA). Core income is expected to be around P32.6 to P33.0 billion, in line with the company\u2019s previous guidance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. PLDT also clarified that it will continue to pay the estimated P45.00 per share regular dividend, and P42.00 per share special dividend, based on full-year 2022 earnings. The company remains open to potentially funding this with its planned borrowing of P45 Billion in 2023, in the event that the company\u2019s cash flow is insufficient to pay for its obligations to shareholders.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. The company emphasized again that so far there has been no evidence of fraud, overpricing, or unrecorded transactions. The PSE also confirmed that there has been no insider trading involved in the massive drop in TEL\u2019s share price prior to its disclosure about its capex overrun.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    <\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Analysis and Recommendation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    TEL\u2019s share price somewhat strengthened following the barrage of disclosures, and the report to the PSE showed that PLDT Chairman Manny Pangilinan and President Al Panlilio each bought 3,000 shares of TEL at prices ranging between P1,235 and P1,270 when the stock cratered on December 19. Various PLDT officers also acquired shares during that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It was a show of confidence in the company, but is it enough to encourage investors standing on the sidelines to buy into TEL\u2019s story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/div>\n\n\n\n

    This report is prepared by PinoyInvestor\u2019s partner broker below. Find out more about our partner brokers<\/a> and sign up to avail their complete trading brokerage services.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here’s a commentary on an important issue or event affecting the stock market <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-reports","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320081,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320079\/revisions\/320081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinoyinvestor.com\/smartinvestor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}