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Digitel net loss widens in first nine months

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/21/2008 7:26 PM

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Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel) said Friday its net loss surged to P2.7 billion in the first nine months of the year from P229 million in the same period last year due to the weak peso.

The telecommunications firm booked net foreign exchange and market valuation losses amounting to P2 billion. Excluding these extraordinary losses, it said net loss in January to September was only at P241.4 million.

Digitel's consolidated nine-month revenues, meanwhile, rose 27 percent from P6 billion to P7.7 billion, owing to an improvement in the wireless segment.

The company's wireless communications business posted a 68.1 percent rise in its operating revenues to P4.7 billion from P2.8 billion last year.

Its wireline voice communication services, on the other hand, registered service and non-service revenues of P2.7 billion, down 9 percent year on year. Digitel attributed the slump to lower international and domestic tolls, decreasing average rates per minute, and the lower average exchange rate this year of P43.19:$1 versus last year's P47.14:$1.

Net service revenue, 70 percent of which accounts for unlimited services, improved substantially by 67.8 percent because of the continued success of Digitel's unlimited service portfolio and increase in its subscriber count.

Digitel did not disclose how many mobile subscribers it had at end-September. It had about 6.5 million subscribers as of the first half.

Moving forward, Digitel said that it is upgrading its South Luzon transmission backbone and other facilities.

Digitel is part of Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings, which has business interests in air transportation, banking, food manufacturing, hotels, petrochemicals, power generation, publishing, real estate and property development.

as of 11/21/2008 7:29 PM