DITO CME Holdings Corp. on Monday said it booked P3.03 billion first-half revenue after its EBITDA grew 26 percent to P2.79 billion during the first six months.
The company said its subsidiary, DITO Telecommunity Corp., the country’s telecommunications duopoly challenger, was the main driver of topline growth with a 614 percent year-on-year increase in gross subscribers to 9.64 million as of end-June.
“We continue to move forward and are very satisfied with our investment in DITO Telecommunity.
The strong growth in DITO’s mobile subscribers in just a little over a year and a quarter from commercial launch is proof positive that there continues to be a segment of the market that prefers telco services that are no-nonsense, fast, and reliable,” DITO CME President Eric R. Alberto said.
Out of the $1.30 billion in loan facilities through various financial institutions, $1.18 billion have been drawn and all originally carried maturity dates from April to October this year.
DITO Telecommunity had renewed its $500 million loan facility from China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd to May 2023 last month while loan facilities from several Bank of China branches totaling $800 million are in the process of finalization or will be renewed before the maturity dates.
However, in its stock report, the company noted its losses widened to P15.43 billion from January to June amid higher operational and interest expenses.
It said the spike in losses was due to the P7.26 billion in unrealized foreign exchange losses from a gain in the same period last year.
It was also pushed up by the 135 percent and 423 percent increases in costs and expenses and interest expenses, respectively.