MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), the country's most valuable firm, likely hit its core income guidance last year, its chairman said on Friday.

Manuel Pangilinan told reporters that the company's core earnings likely hit P41 billion ($879 million) in 2009, up 8% from the previous year, as its mobile subscriber base climed to over 41 million.

The telecommunications firm will have the official figures by March 2, Pangilinan said.

PLDT, owned by Hong Kong's First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan's NTT Communications and NTT DoCoMo, would allot P28 billion for capital expenditures in 2010.

It obtained late last year a loan worth P7 billion to partly fund the budget.

"We'll be making investments in broadband and data network on fixed. We will also continue to expand HSPA (high speed packet access),” Pangilinan said.

PLDT reported net incomes of P6.91 billion for the third quarter, and P26.2 billion for the first 9 months of 2009, down 27.5% and 2.0% year-on-year, respectively.

On Friday, PLDT shares closed up P15 or 0.57% at P2,670 apiece. - With reports from Michelle Orosa, ABS-CBN News, and Reuters