Manila's PLDT sees higher H1 core earnings vs last yr

MANILA, July 5 (Reuters) - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) (TEL.PS) likely posted higher core earnings in the first half of the year from last year, helped by good second quarter results of its wireless business, its president said at the weekend.

"I'm not sure if it's better than the first quarter, but the trending is better than last year. And trending is about the same magnitude as the first quarter was better than the first quarter of last year," PLDT President Napoleon Nazareno said of the firm's wireless business.

Nazareno said the favourable second quarter showing of its wireless business, which included Smart Communications Inc and Pilipino Telephone Corp (PLTL.PS) among others, should translate to better first half core earnings for PLDT against last year.

PLDT reported core earnings of 10.2 billion pesos ($212 million) for January-March, up 9.4 percent from a year earlier.

Its free cashflow was 18.9 billion pesos to the end of March, from around 17 billion pesos a year ago.

The company's mobile phone subscriber base topped 38 million at the end of May, from 35.2 million at the end of 2008.

PLDT, partly owned by Hong Kong's First Pacific Co Ltd (0142.HK), Japan's NTT Communications (9432.T) and NTT DoCoMo (9437.T), said in May it expects to exceed its core profit goal of 40 billion pesos this year, 5 percent higher than last year.

First half results will be released next month. ($1=48.09 pesos) (Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Jerry Norton)