Globe sees sustained revenue growth

MANILA, Philippines - Listed Globe Telecom Inc., jointly owned by conglomerate Ayala Corp. and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., sees sustained revenue growth next year amid the steady upturn in the use of data-capable devices.

Ernest L. Cu, president and chief executive officer of Globe, sees very positive signs on browsing activity in 2014 as most subscribers want to maximize the use of smartphones beyond call and text.

“In a market of sustained demand for data solutions and connectivity across different business sectors, we stand to capitalize on this growth opportunity through various products and solutions, including cloud computing,” Cu stressed.

Globe has partnered with seven of the most popular chat applications providers including Viber, FB Messenger, KakaoTalk, WeChat, Gmessage, Whatsapp and Line to further speed growth of mobile data and content-related services.

The company has also introduced another first in the market by partnering with Facebook to offer free access to Facebook to all of its subscribers over a three-month period as long as they have data-capable gadgets amid growing preference of Filipinos for social networking sites.

“These services offerings were designed to engage our subscribers to experience and get into the habit of using mobile data services and early returns on these promotions have been very encouraging,” he added.

Globe’s Tattoo recently launched service offerings to cater to increased smartphone use and growing popularity of internet access via mobile devices and increasing demand rising demand for mobile Wi-Fi and faster internet connectivity. It also unveiled-data plan offer for Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

“These service offerings are aimed at capitalizing on increasing demand for mobile browsing,” Cu said.

Mobile data revenues of Globe accounted for more than half or 56 percent of total mobile service revenues. It increased 17 percent to P30 billion as of end-September from P25.8 billion a year earlier.

 Cu said earlier the company sees slower revenues in the fourth quarter of the year due to the extensive devastation in the Visayas region brought about by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

He pointed out that Globe expects lower revenues amid the expected surge in voice calls and short messaging system (SMS) during the holiday season as the extensive damage caused by the typhoon likely affected domestic spending in the last quarter.

“Notwithstanding the usual seasonal increase in both SMS and voice traffic during the holiday season, fourth quarter revenues may not be as strong as in prior years due to softer demand for telco services in the affected areas and possible cutbacks in telco-related spending on the part of subscribers as they donate these instead to the relief and rebuilding efforts of the government and private sector,” Cu stressed.

Globe’s net income plunged 48 percent to P3.5 billion in the first nine months of the year as revenue growth and decline in interest expense were fully offset by higher foreign exchange losses and increased accelerated depreciation costs related to the transformation projects.

On the other hand, the consolidated revenues of Globe grew 10 percent to P67.26 billion from January to September this year. Mobile revenues rose eight percent followed by broadband revenues that jumped 22 percent while fixed line data revenues climbed 12 percent.

Globe’s subscriber base increased 14 percent to 36.5 million as of end-September consisting of 34.53 million Globe and TM prepaid subscribers and 1.98 million postpaid subscribers.