Voyager sticks to 2024 profitability target

MANILA, Philippines — Voyager Innovations Inc., the operator of digital bank Maya, is sticking to its target of turning profitable by 2024 despite the positive market response to the relaunch of the fintech app earlier this year.

In an interview with reporters, PLDT Inc. chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said Voyager may just hit profitability by 2024 as projected, although it could start covering its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) soon.

Voyager is a subsidiary of PLDT Communications and Energy Venture, a unit of PLDT’s wireless arm Smart Communications Inc.

“I think there’s a good chance that [Voyager] can cover its EBITDA where the full P&L [profit and loss] will be positive. I’m not sure.. to be honest, I haven’t seen the budgets yet,” Pangilinan said.

“However, I doubt whether Voyager will be profitable by 2023. I think [it will be 2024],” he said.

PLDT poured an additional P3.3-billion investment into Voyager this year, as Maya moved up to become a digital bank in April. As a digital bank, Maya offers an all-in-one channel for payments, savings, credit, crypto, insurance and investments.

In the nine months to September, PLDT said it booked a P2.4-billion loss from Voyager, up by 85 percent from P1.3 billion a year ago. During the period, gains made by Voyager on dilution dipped by 29 percent to P500 million.

Despite the losses, Voyager CEO and founder Orlando Vea said Maya is expanding fast, with one million customers and P10 billion in deposits in just five months since its public launch.

Last week PLDT reported a net income of close to P11 billion in the third quarter on the back of revenue growths on all segments.

On an annual scale, PLDT said its profit increased by 45 percent to P27.38 billion as of September, from P18.85 billion a year ago, while core income has risen by 10 percent to P25.38 billion from P23.1 billion.

PLDT computes core income as net income adjusted to the net impact of gains and losses from multiple factors, including Voyager operations.