AYALA-OWNED Globe Telecom signed term loan facilities with Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company for a total amount of P15 billion. The loans shall be used to finance the company’s capital expenditures (capex), debt refinancing and/or general corporate requirements, it said in a stock disclosure on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023.
Globe invested about P37.7 billion in capex as of the first half of 2023, or 25 percent lower than the similar period of 2022 and consistent with the company’s efforts to bring free cash flow back to more sustainable levels.
Majority or about 90 percent of the capex spending was allocated to data network builds to meet the consumer’s escalating demand for data.
As of June 2023, Globe built 542 new cell sites, and upgraded 5,087 mobile sites to LTE in order to meet the rising data demands of its customers. The company also deployed around 148,000 fiber-to-the-home or FTTH lines, significantly lower than last year’s rollout to maximize the utilization of its existing fiber inventory.
As a 5G pioneer in the Philippines, Globe continues to deploy 5G wireless technology nationwide, firing up 356 new 5G sites across the Philippines, increasing its 5G outdoor coverage to 97.44 percent of the National Capital Region and 91 percent of key cities in Visayas and Mindanao./ CSL