Beleaguered PLDT Inc. has yet to uncover the fraudulent masterminds behind the company's P48-billion capital expenditure overrun in the last four years but said it will cooperate with investigations launched by market and securities regulators.

In a stock report on Wednesday, PLDT said it "will make the necessary disclosures if this changes in the future."

It said it will fully cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Philippine Stock Exchange and the Capital Markets Integrity Corporation on their inquiry into the company's elevated capex spending and trading activities.

The company held a special Investors Briefing in Makati on Wednesday. Media members were barred from entering the venue and holding interviews with PLDT executives.

In its filing, PLDT already said that it will disclose the information once the investigations are complete, otherwise "any announcement would (be) premature to the detriment of the public shareholders."

"As a listed company, PLDT has an obligation to make timely disclosures. Even as there were rumors circulating about PLDT in the public domain, PLDT needs to understand the range of issues involved and the extent of the matter," it said.

Lax management?

However, in a chance interview, an analyst who attended the briefing said PLDT executives explained to investors the decisions of the capex and whether certain purchases are within the budget.

"The explanation they gave was that because of the typhoon and the pandemic, they needed to install broadband to houses quickly because of pressures from Duterte and competitors," the analyst who requested anonymity said.

"Vendors have been installing even before asking for approval. So they deploy first even before being budgeted in the capex — that's the only explanation that I understood," the source added.

The source also noted that management acknowledged that it became lenient in fully checking if capex requests were within budget.

"If they request for capex disbursement management did not ask if this was within the budget. Management acknowledged that they failed to ask. Then at the same time, those who requested the capex did not provide anything," the source explained.

Meanwhile, PLDT Home senior vice president and head of consumer business Jeremiah de la Cruz said the PLDT group is working as one team amid financial issues.

"We are working together on this as one team, but it's business as usual for Home," he told reporters in a spot interview.

Last week, PLDT bared that the budget discrepancy represented 2.7 percent of its total P379-billion capital spending budget.

Among others, the capex was earmarked for network expansion rollout, Fiber-to-the-home investments, and tower upgrades.

The estimate w subject to "ongoing internal forensics mandated by the board and its audit committee, discussions with principal vendors with a view to a reconciliation of accounts and reduction of such budget overruns."

The budget overrun was expected to be mitigated by the gains from its P77-billion sale and leaseback agreement. It announced today another deal amounting to P9.2 billion.

Despite the findings, PLDT said its revenue stream remains "healthy and robust."