Globe takes out $40-M loan to fund expansion

Industry giant Globe Telecom is raising additional money to fund its expansion and refinance existing obligations.

Globe, which is part of the Ayala Group, said in a stock exchange filing on Friday that it had signed a $40-million term loan facility with affiliate Bank of the Philippine Islands.

“The loan shall be used to partially finance the company’s maturing obligations, capital expenditures and general corporate requirements,” Globe said in its filing.

The company earlier allotted a capital spending budget of $950 million (P50 billion) for 2018.

This was earlier increased from an initial $850 million, as Globe decided to accelerate its network investments amid booming demand for internet services and ahead the entry of a new major telco player.

Last month, the National Telecommunications Commission named the Mislatel Consortium, backed by businessman Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp. and state-owned China Telecom, as the country’s third telco.

As of the third quarter of the year, Globe had spent about 65 percent of its full-year capital spending budget.

This mainly went to the widening of its LTE network, fixed broadband services and its pilot 5G services, which are set to be launched in 2019.

Globe previously reported that core profit from January to September hit P15.3 billion, a gain of almost 37 percent over the same episode in 2017.

Net income, which includes nonrecurring charges, foreign exchange and mark-to-market charges, amounted to P15.2 billion against P13 billion last year.

Total service revenues during the period amounted to P101.9 billion, up 7 percent.

This was bolstered by the almost 24-percent surge in mobile data revenues to P38.7 billion. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS