Eastern Telecom
Eastern Telecom earmarks P1-billion for new projects
Michelle Orosa, ABS CBN News | 09/09/2008 4:49 PM
Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (ETPI) has allotted P1 billion for capital expenditures this year as it undertakes a major expansion project and an overhaul of its system capabilities.
At the sidelines of ETPI's celebration of its 130th anniversary, ETPI Chief Financial Officer Raul Pagdanganan says ETPI will be expanding its backhaul operations into Tagaytay and Batangas by putting up a cable landing station in Nasugbu, Batangas.
The fiber-optic facilities are expected to expand the company's franchise to the Cavite and Laguna areas to benefit business process outsourcing and manufacturing centers moving away from the Manila central business district.
The backhaul facility is expected to be operational by the end of the year.
Pagdanganan added that ETPI will also be introducing a new Business Support System (BSS), which will provide customer care, billing and collection, service provisioning and interconnection system simultaneously. The new system is expected to improve the company's productivity and network efficiency, when it becomes operation by the fourth quarter of 2008.
"These are our biggest investments since we came in ETPI," Pagdanganan says.
The P1 billion capex will be sourced from internal cash, and the rest from bank loans. He added that the company was frontloading on capex this year for the major projects, and would likely reduce the amount by half in 2009.
The CFO stresses that the new projects are fruits of the major overhaul that ETPI has gone through since ISM Communications took over in 2006, acquiring over two-thirds of the bleeding company.
To date, Pagdanganan said that only 19 percent of total debt that ISM absorbed since it acquired ETPI remains.
ETPI, which concentrates mainly on data and internet services for corporate accounts, has about 15,000 total subscribers. It hopes to double this by next year through new services to be launched by end-2008.
ETPI posted a net profit of P371 million in 2007, boosted mainly by the company's data and internet services.
"We're expecting a 16 percent growth in revenue this year. The full effects of the new projects will likely be felt in 2010," Pagdanganan said.