Globe earnings down on absence of one-time gains
Globe Telecom Inc., despite booking more revenues, registered a 27-percent decline in net income during the first half due to absence of a one-time gain from asset sale and higher depreciation expense.
In its quarterly report, the telco giant said net earnings fell to P14.38 billion for the period from P19.68 billion a year ago even though total topline figures grew by nearly 3 percent to P89.52 billion.
The Ayala-led company’s net income normalized in the first half without the recognition of asset sales. To recall, Globe sold a controlling interest in its data center last year for P10.51 billion, resulting in a bloated bottom line.
Net profits were also dragged by depreciation expense increasing by about 3 percent to P22.9 billion for the period.
Still, service revenues climbed by 2 percent to a record P80.4 billion in the first half, driven by data revenue growth across mobile and corporate data business.
Mobile business revenues, mostly accounted for by the prepaid segment, were up 1 percent to P54.8 billion. Mobile data traffic grew by 29 percent to 2,814 petabytes in the first half because of increasing “popularity of streaming and user-generated content through social media.”
Corporate data business, meanwhile, contributed P9.1 billion in revenues, showing an 11-percent improvement from the previous year. Globe attributed this to rising demand for digitalization on the part of businesses.
“The Globe Group continues to perform well during the first half of the year, despite facing macroeconomic challenges. We were consistent in delivering revenue growth on our mobile and corporate data businesses,” Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said.
