MANILA, Philippines -Globe Telecom Inc. received a cash infusion of P540 million from the sale of tower assets to MIESCOR Infrastructure Development Corp. (MIDC), further beefing up its coffers for expansion.
In a disclosure Tuesday, the telco announced it had turned over 45 towers more to MIDC. So far, it had closed the sale for 1,194 out of 2,180 towers for transfer to MIDS for a total of P26 billion.
“There will be multiple closing dates which will happen as and when closing conditions are met. We will continue to provide updates on the relevant development of the disposal of tower assets in due course,” Globe said.
In total, the Ayala-led company sold 7,506 tower assets for P96.4 billion in total to several tower companies, including MIDC.
READ: Globe Telecom sells 5,709 towers for P71B
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 had said.
The sale and lease back of tower assets is in line with the government’s tower sharing initiative, which seeks to beef up connectivity across the country.
READ: Study: Telcos, consumers winners in PH’s common tower policy
Tower sharing enables operators to expand their footprint across the country without putting up more facilities. It is more cost effective since operators will just lease the multiple use towers from the independent tower companies.
Globe spent P54 billion in capital expenditures from January to September for infrastructure amid the country’s growing data requirements. It built 833 new cell sites and upgraded 5,395 mobile sites and deployed around 175,000 fiber-to-the-home lines.