Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Globe reports P15B revenues
GLOBE Telecom closed the first quarter of this year with consolidated service revenues of P15.5 billion, at par with last year’s level despite a more difficult macro-economic environment.
Rising food and fuel prices, and the impact of the strong peso on the spending power of the overseas Filipino workers and their families have affected demand for the company’s services.
Globe’s wireless business registered a percentage point decline in service revenues while wireline revenues increased six percent year-on-year driven by the continued growth in the company’s broadband and corporate data businesses.
Margins remained healthy at 64 percent. Net income stood at P1.3 billion for the early redemption of Globe’s $300 Senior Notes.
SIM base
Globe maintained strong subscriber momentum, with its SIM base expanding 26 percent year-on-year to close the quarter at 21.3 million. Gross additions grew 30 percent from last year while net additions closed at just under the one million mark, sustaining the million or more net adds that the company has achieved over the past five quarters.
The company’s second prepaid brand, TM (Touch Mobile), continued to set the pace of growth, comprising 65 percent of total net additions for the quarter.
“We are encouraged by the strength and resilience of our performance despite the challenging market and competitive environment,” said Gerardo C. Ablaza Jr.,president and chief executive officer of Globe Telecom Inc.
“We will remain focused on the business fundamentals during these difficult times, and continue to put emphasis on value pricing, innovative service creation, cost efficiency improvements, and expansion into new growth areas,” he added.
On the wireline front, broadband and corporate data continue to be the main drivers of growth for the business, posting revenue growth of 73 percent and 15 percent, respectively. These two have softene the impact of the decline in wireless revenues.
Broadband
With its customer base up 86 percent from a year ago to just over 128,000 subscribers at the close of the quarter, the broadband business contributed over P300 million in revenues. This strong growth is made possible by the company’s sustained network expansion, complemented by more affordable broadband packages.
“We remain confident about the prospects of broadband and will continue to invest in technologies that will get us closer to our vision of making internet widely available to all Filipinos,” Ablaza said.
Globe has earmarked about $400 million to $450 million in capital expenditures this year to enhance its mobile network quality and coverage, grow its broadband footprint, and improve the resiliency of its Internet network. (PR)
