PLDT Inc. (TEL) chaired by bilyonaryo Manny V. Pangilinan is taking a big L on its assets and going deeper into debt in the aftermath of the colossal P48 billion budget overprice engulfing the country’s largest mobile company.
Based on initial takeaways from Pangilinan’s briefing with analysts on December 21, TEL is expected to write off P50 billion to P55 billion of assets in 2022 which would substantially pull down its bottomline.
TEL told analysts that its capex could hit up to P97 billion this year from its original forecast of P80 billion.
The telco giant also sees its core income hitting P33 billion and its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) hitting at least P100 billion this year.
TEL expects its PNL (profit and loss statement) to normalize by 2024 and start generating cash flow by 2025.
It reported a 45 percent year on year surge in profit to P27.4 billion in the first nine months of the year.
TEL is also expected to borrow between P35 billion and P40 billion in the next two years to settle the enormous overprice in capital expenditures from 2019 to 2022 and maintain dividend payments policy to rightfully angry shareholders.