PLDT (NYSE:PHI) reported a resilient first-half performance as growth in its enterprise business, improving wireless trends and disciplined spending helped offset softer consumer demand and a lagged impact from home-installation constraints.
Chief Operating Officer Butch Jimenez said gross service revenues rose 2% to PHP108.7 billion in the first half of 2026, while service revenues net of interconnection costs increased 1% to PHP97.8 billion. EBITDA reached PHP56.1 billion, with the EBITDA margin holding at 52%.
Wireless trends improve during the quarter
Wireless consumer revenue was broadly unchanged at PHP42.1 billion. Mobile data and fixed wireless access revenue increased 2% to PHP38.7 billion and represented 92% of wireless consumer revenue.
Jimenez said top-up trends improved over the first half, moving from a 3% year-over-year decline in March to flat results in April and May, followed by 1% growth in June. Smart Officer-in-Charge Lloyd Manaloto said July top-ups were running at roughly 3% growth, while August was tracking between 2% and 3%.
Manaloto attributed part of the improvement to structural factors, including lower gasoline and diesel prices that supported mobility, and part to the company’s marketing initiatives. PLDT has selectively raised prices on certain prepaid offers while including additional data and benefits. It also expanded hyper-personalized promotions, which Jimenez said have generated conversion rates as high as 5%, compared with around 0.2% for generic SMS offers.
Active data users reached 24.1 million, while data traffic increased 12% to 3,273 petabytes. The number of 5G devices rose to 12.5 million, representing 21% of the device base.
Home business works through installation disruption
Home revenue declined 1% to PHP30 billion, including a 1% decline in fiber revenue to PHP29.4 billion. Management said the business continued to absorb the effects of first-quarter installation constraints linked to an OSS migration, which delayed the conversion of customer orders into completed installations.
John Palanca, senior vice president and head of Consumer Home Business, said installation rates returned to pre-disruption levels during the second quarter, while conversion rates improved and churn declined. Fiber net additions rose to 97,000 in the second quarter, more than double the first-quarter pace, and postpaid net additions turned positive in May.
Because the home business is 99% postpaid, management said new installations typically take three to four months to become meaningful recurring revenue. Palanca said the company expects improvement to become visible as the growing postpaid subscriber base compounds over time.
First-half home ARPU was PHP1,330, while net churn was 1.8% and postpaid churn improved to 1.4%. PLDT said it is also developing prepaid fiber as a potential growth engine, provided it can maintain acceptable economics.
Enterprise and data centers lead growth
Enterprise remained PLDT’s strongest growth segment, with revenue increasing 5% to PHP24.8 billion. Corporate data and ICT revenue also rose 5% to PHP18.4 billion. ICT revenue grew 22%, led by a 35% increase in technology services.
The company cited growth across several enterprise units, including 30% growth in PLDT Global enterprise revenue, 15% growth in Smart’s enterprise business, 37% growth in ePLDT Tech Services, and 13% growth in Vitro data-center revenue.
Vitro had approximately 34 megawatts of activated IT-ready capacity at the end of June. PLDT plans to activate another 10 megawatts at VITRO Santa Rosa by year-end. Management said identified expansion opportunities in Santa Rosa, Clark and Cebu could bring total IT-ready capacity to 62.4 megawatts.
Vitro President and CEO Biboy Genuino said the company was still targeting a potential fourth-quarter listing for the proposed Vitro REIT, subject to market conditions. The proposed REIT would include eight existing data centers with 24 megawatts of capacity, while VITRO Santa Rosa could be injected in the future.
OIC CFO Leo Posadas said a REIT transaction could support future data-center investment and PLDT’s deleveraging efforts. Management said the transaction could improve net debt-to-EBITDA from about 2.6 times to approximately 2.4 times, with a little over PHP12 billion expected to be used for debt repayment under the plan discussed during the call.
Capex declines while dividend is maintained
First-half capital expenditures fell to PHP20.7 billion from PHP27.4 billion a year earlier, reducing capital intensity to 19% of service revenues from 26%. PLDT maintained its full-year capital-expenditure expectation in the mid-PHP50 billion range, though Posadas said the company aims to continue reducing investment intensity over time through tighter prioritization and return-on-invested-capital discipline.
Net debt stood at PHP287.3 billion at the end of June, equivalent to 2.57 times EBITDA. Average pre-tax interest cost improved to 5.05% from 5.43% at the end of 2025. PLDT said it remains focused on generating positive free cash flow and reducing leverage toward two times net debt-to-EBITDA.
The board declared a first-half cash dividend of PHP46 per share, in line with the company’s policy. Posadas said PLDT’s current intention is to maintain a payout ratio of 60% of core income.
Maya contributed PHP559 million to PLDT’s core income in the first half, compared with PHP406 million a year earlier. Management said Maya’s second-quarter contribution was affected by one-time accounting adjustments rather than weaker underlying operations. At the end of June, Maya reported PHP86 billion in deposits and PHP39 billion in loans outstanding, while its gross nonperforming loan ratio stood at 4.8%.
About PLDT (NYSE:PHI)
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) is the largest integrated telecommunications provider in the Philippines, offering a comprehensive suite of fixed‐line, wireless, broadband Internet, and digital solutions to residential, enterprise, and government customers. Founded in 1928, PLDT has played a pivotal role in the development of the country’s communications infrastructure, evolving from a traditional operator of long‐distance telephone lines into a diversified digital services provider.
PLDT operates two main business segments: its fixed‐line and broadband operations under the PLDT brand and its wireless services through subsidiary Smart Communications.
