FIBER broadband player Converge ICT Solutions Inc. anticipates 2024 to be a strong banner year.
It raised its full-year revenue target to double-digit growth and set a higher capital expenditure (capex) guidance driven by the strong demand for its broadband products.
During the virtual media briefing on Aug. 14, 2024, Grace Uy, Converge president and co-founder, said the company is revising its revenue growth guidance from seven to eight percent to 12 to 14 percent for the full year of 2024. This will be driven by the strong demand for Bida Fiber and Surf2Sawa and FiberX exceeding targets.
“Our industry-leading performance in the first half of the year is a promising sign that 2024 will be another banner year for us. We see the demand for fiber broadband to remain unhampered, allowing us to continue reaching more and more Filipinos across different income levels,” said Uy.
Robert Yu, Converge’s chief finance officer, also said the capex guidance this year is expected to range between P15 billion to P17 billion. The company already spent P4.7 billion in the first half.
Converge closed the first half with a 23.6 percent surge in net income, reaching P5.3 billion, and consolidated revenues of P19.5 billion, up by 12.4 percent. This growth was fueled by the robust demand for its residential broadband services and sustained double-digit expansion in its enterprise business.
During the six-month period, Converge added a total of 223,751 subscribers, a 142 percent jump from 92,302 during the same period last year. This resulted in an 11.8 percent year-on-year growth in residential revenues to P16.6 billion in the first half of the year.
Enterprise revenues, on the other hand, increased by 16 percent year-on-year to reach P2.9 billion from January to June this year.
As of the end of June 2024, the consolidated subscriber base of Converge reached 2.35 million, a growth of 19.4 percent from 1.97 million as of the same month last year.
Dennis Anthony Uy, Converge’s chief executive officer and co-founder, expects even stronger performance in the coming months, as the partnership between Converge and Sky Cable Corp. begins to deliver results.
“With our recent commercial arrangement with Sky Cable Corp., we see these numbers as just the starting point. We expect the collaboration to bear fruit in terms of revenue growth, as we are bound to see increased port utilization and further monetize our network,” said Dennis.
In July, Converge and Lopez-owned Sky Cable Corp. entered into a commercial arrangement that will enable Sky to upgrade its network and improve services to its subscribers.
Converge said that it has begun upgrading Sky Fiber services, with Metro Manila serving as the pilot area. The migration is expected to be completed by the end of this year or early next year. / KOC