Globe Telecom sells 5,709 towers for P71B

Globe Telecom has forged agreements to sell 5,709 of its towers to Miescor Infrastructure Development Corp. and Frontier Tower Associates Philippines for a combined P71 billion.

The Ayala-led telecommunications company said on Friday that Frontier acquired 3,529 towers for P45 billion while Meralco unit Miescor got 2,180 towers for P26 billion.

Globe added that it was in “advanced discussion” with a tower company for a separate sale and leaseback deal covering 1,350 towers in Visayas and Mindanao and related passive telecommunications infrastructure.

The bulk or 75 percent of the proceeds from the transactions will be used to bankroll Globe’s aggressive network expansion program. The balance will be used for its debt servicing requirements next year.

“We have always been looking for ways to monetize our tower assets and this record-breaking initiative marks our continued commitment to optimize our capital raising efforts and further strengthen the balance sheet,” said Rizza Maniego-Eala, chief finance officer of Globe.

In the first half, its net income attributable to equity holders of the parent firm surged by 49 percent to P19.65 billion from last year’s P13.04 billion, supported by consolidated service revenue, which grew by 4 percent to P78.9 billion.

Its unit GCash remains the leading digital wallet in the country with 5.2 million merchants using its service and 66 million registered users.

With the user base up by 50 percent from last year, active users are now five times larger than that of its nearest comppresident and CEO of GCash.

—with reports from Tyrone Jasper C. Piad and Gabriel Villapando