Globe inks P20-B loan deal with BDO

MANILA   -Globe Telecom has secured a P20-billion loan facility from BDO Unibank mainly for its expansion plans, which include network buildup and upgrade.

“The loan shall be used to finance the company’s capital expenditures (capex), debt refinancing and/or general corporate requirements,” the company said in a statement.

Prior to this, Globe inked term loan facilities with Bank of the Philippine Islands, China Banking Corp. and Robinsons Banking Corp. for a total of P12 billion.

Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. also extended a P15-billion loan to Globe.

Apart from loans, Globe has been beefing up its coffers with the sale of its tower asset. Last week, it received P1.5 billion after transferring 120 towers that were sold to Frontier Towers.

The telco giant sold a total of 7,506 tower assets for P96.4 billion to several tower companies.

The unloading of assets “will allow Globe to efficiently raise capital, redeploy capital from passive infrastructure to active equipment, improve balance sheet health and leverage expertise of tower companies,” the telco player said previously.

Globe spent P54 billion in January to September on  infrastructure expansion to meet growing data requirements. It built 833 new cell sites, upgraded 5,395 mobile sites and deployed about 175,000 fiber-to-the-home lines during the period.

READ: Globe posts widest signal reach in PH, industry report shows

It now has 5G outdoor coverage of 97.67 percent in the National Capital Region and 92.06 percent in key cities of Visayas and Mindanao after deploying 716 new 5G sites across the country. As of end-September, it has 5.2 million 5G devices logged in its network.

“The majority of the capex spend or 91 percent was allocated for the data requirements to ensure that customers will be able to access the best digital solutions and connectivity anytime,” the telco giant said.

READ: Globe Telecom’s 9-mo revenues lifted by mobile, corporate data

Nine-month net profit fell by 27 percent to P19.29 billion in January to September from P26.46 billion a year ago due to absence of one-time gain from asset sale. Topline figures, however, rose by 3 percent to P121.1 billion because of revenue growth from mobile, corporate data and non-telco services.