MANILA, Philippines - Listed Globe Telecom Inc., a joint venture between conglomerate Ayala Corp. and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., recorded a 17.2 percent growth in earnings in the third quarter of the year on the back of increasing number of subscribers.
Globe booked a net income of P2.12 billion in the third quarter of the year from P1.84 billion in the same period last year and revenues increased 11.8 percent to P22.72 billion from P21.24 billion.
Mobile revenues amounted to P18.23 billion followed by broadband with P2.63 billion, fixed line data with P1.19 billion, and fixed line voice with P671 million.
“Our third quarter results show that the company’s growth momentum is still intact and that we competed well despite the complexity of the ongoing transformation projects. We continued to deliver solid top-line growth, fueled by the robust performance of our mobile, corporate data and broadband businesses,†Globe President and chief executive officer Ernest Cu said.
The company has completed its $400 million network modernization and transformation program. It is in the middle of a $90 million information technology (IT) modernization project.
The consolidated revenues of Globe grew 10 percent to P67.26 billion for the first nine months of the year from P61.32 billion a year ago.
Mobile revenues rose eight percent to P54.1 billion from P49.9 billion due to higher number of subscribers followed by broadband revenues that jumped 22 percent to P7.78 billion on the back of the market’s positive response to the company’s wide portfolio of wireless and wired broadband products that were made more affordable and relevant to subscribers.
Fixed line data revenues climbed 12 percent to P3.45 billion mainly driven by the continued success of various communication, collaboration, and connectivity solutions offered to small and medium businesses, corporates and enterprises while fixed line voice revenues retreated by four percent to P1.96 billion.
Cu reported that the company’s subscriber base increased 14 percent to 36.5 million as of end-September. Prepaid subscribers of Globe inched up by five percent to 16.96 million followed by TM subscribers with 23 percent to 17.57 million, and postpaid subscribers rose 19 percent to 1.98 million.
Overall expenses, which include subsidy, operating expenses and depreciation charges, grew 21 percent to P60.8 billion due to the continued reinvestments in new subscriber acquisitions and re-contracting, staff-related and network costs, and the additional depreciation expenses from the change-out of equipment related to the modernization programs.