MANILA, The Philippines—Due to the solid performance of its mobile-phone subsidiary Smart Communications, Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) net earnings last year more than tripled to 3.4 billion Philippine pesos (US$66.9 million) from 1.1 billion pesos (US$21.7 million) in 2000.
Minus the net income of Smart, the PLDT group would have posted a 500 million peso (US$9.8 million) deficit. Smart raked in 3.9 billion pesos (US$76.8 million) in profits, coming from a 406 million peso (US$7.9 million) loss in 2000.
This came hand in hand with the addition of 2 million users to its subscriber list. In the fourth quarter alone, Smart was able to win over a total of 566,805 new subscribers.
However, the success of Smart failed to rub off on mobile-phone affiliate Pilipino Telephone (Piltel). Saddled with huge operating expenses, Piltel’s losses widened to 4.9 billion pesos (US$96.5 million) from 3.7 billion pesos (US$72.8 million) previously.
