Globe secures P22B in loans to shore up spending plan

Globe Telecom Inc. will get fresh loans totaling P22 billion to beef up its capital spending budget this year and improve its balance sheet.

In a stock exchange filing on Thursday, the Ayala-backed telecommunications giant said it had signed term loan facilities with Sy-led China Banking Corp. for P10 billion, government-owned Land Bank of the Philippines for P5 billion, and Ty-led Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. for P7 billion.

“The loans will be used to finance the company’s capital expenditures, debt refinancing and/or general corporate requirements,” Globe said.

READ: Globe inks P20-B loan deal with BDO

In the first half of the year, the company shelled out P28.3 billion, which it said was lower by 25 percent versus the same period last year.

The bulk of the budget was spent for data infrastructure meant to improve access to digital services and entertainment options.

The company built 352 cell sites, upgraded 1,942 mobile sites and deployed 256 new 5G sites across the country in the January to June period.

Globe previously said it wanted to cut its capital spending for the year by 22 percent to a total P55 billion, its lowest allocation since 2019 as the company works toward “positive free cash flows” by next year.

Its first-semester earnings ended flat at P14.54 billion as declines in the home broadband segment offset growth in the mobile and corporate data businesses.

READ: Globe secures P15-B loan from Metrobank

Excluding nonrecurring items, core net income expanded by 18 percent to P11.7 billion. Revenues inched up by 2 percent to P82.2 billion.

Its financial technology arm Mynt, the operator of e-wallet app GCash, more than doubled its profit to P2.1 billion as the app became “the preferred choice for digital financing services.”

Earlier this month, the Ayala Group’s AC Ventures Holdings Inc. announced plans to acquire an additional 8-percent stake in GCash for P22.9 billion to increase its ownership to 13 percent.