PLDT Inc. said it is in talks with financial advisers for a possible entry of investors into its data center business.
“We have just exploratory discussions with them and just really feeling out what the market has to offer, but we have not formally started the process,” Alfredo Panlilio, president and chief executive of PLDT said.
Panlilio stressed there was no “real decision” yet on the sale of a minority stake in its data center assets.
“Right now, we continue to review that,” he said, pointing out that the company is “very busy” in completing its 11th data center.
“In fact we’ve thinking whether we should take a look at a 12th [data center] obviously depending on demand that we’re seeing from customers and hyperscalers,” Panlilio added.
ePLDT is building its 11th data center in the Philippines in a five-hectare property in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
VITRO Sta. Rosa will have an initial power capacity of 14MW in early 2024 and will further increase to 50MW once fully operational, which will make it the largest and most advanced data center in the country.
ePLDT operates the widest data center network in the country, offering a total rack capacity of nearly 10,000 to meet the requirements of local and global enterprises across various key industries.
The company recently expanded its VITRO Makati 2 (VM2), its largest operational data center to-date, with an additional 12 megawatts (MW) capacity that will power nearly 1,600 new racks.
This will bring VM2’s total capacity to 3,360 racks running on 20 MW of total power capacity, an increase of 150 percent.
ePLDT’s strategy to rapidly invest in more capacity is driven by the accelerated adoption of digital financial services, e-commerce, digital media, as well as the government’s strong push for digitalization.
PLDT earlier reported a 60 percent drop in net income to P10.48 billion last year, down from P26.36 billion in 2021.
Telco core profit, which excludes the impact of asset sales and Voyager Innovations, reached P33.1 billion last year, up from P30.23 billion in 2021.
The company said its capital expenditures (capex) this year ranges from P80 billion to P85 billion, lower than the P96.8-billion capex last year.
