Globe Telecom posts 48% jump in 9-month net income

Globe Telecom Inc. grew its nine-month net earnings by 48 percent to P26.46 billion as it hit record revenues for the period, driven by its corporate data and mobile services.

The Ayala-led company’s latest financial report showed that its consolidated service revenues in the January-September period rose by 3 percent to P118 billion.

For the third quarter alone, net earnings improved by 39 percent to P6.81 billion from P4.91 billion a year ago.

Revenues from its mobile business, which primarily came from the prepaid segment amid the increasing digital adoption, improved by nearly 3 percent to P80.6 billion in the nine-month period from last year’s P78.4 billion.

Mobile customer base grew by 5 percent to 87.9 million as of end-September.

Mobile data revenue grew by 8 percent to P62.5 billion for the period from P57.9 billion as data traffic reached 3,365 petabytes, exceeding the 2,730 petabytes registered a year ago.

Corporate data revenue climbed by 21 percent to P12.5 billion for the period.

“This was mainly due to the strong traction from information and technology services which grew 96 percent year-on-year,” Globe explained, citing the growth was largely supported by business application services, cloud services and data center.

The Ayala-led telecommunications player spent P74.4 billion in capital expenditure in the first three quarters to upgrade 5G sites and to roll out more Fiber-to-the-Home lines, among others.

For the period, it built 1,064 new cell sites and installed 1,887 new 5G sites across the country to address the growing connectivity needs.

Globe has recently entered into a P91-billion sale and leaseback agreement involving 7,059 tower assets, proceeds of which were earmarked for capex and debt servicing requirements next year. About 21 percent of these towers have already been transferred to the buyers.

The firm also recently concluded its stock rights offering, raising P17 billion to fund mobile and broadband network expansion and debt repayment.

Its e-wallet platform GCash, meanwhile, has now 71 million registered users and 5.5 million merchants onboarded.

“We will stay committed to our promise to improve our network and come up with new products and services to meet the changing needs of the market and support Filipinos’ digital enablement. Looking ahead, we are confident that our digital transformation will enhance shareholder value and unlock Globe’s sustainable growth trajectory,” Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said.