Globe completes transfer of ₧1.9-B towers to MIDC

Globe Telecom Inc. said on Monday it has completed the second closing of its multibillion-peso tower sale deal with Miescor Infrastructure Development Corp. (MIDC), raising P1.9 billion for the transfer of 159 tower assets.

With this, 860 out of 2,180 towers have been turned over to MIDC.

“This marks our last closing for year 2022 and as we prepare to complete the rest next year, we are pleased to see that this milestone transaction has been progressing as scheduled and has already raised nearly P30 billion. Monetizing our tower assets is very timely because it has allowed us to keep our balance sheet healthy amid a rising interest rate environment,” Globe Chief Finance officer, Rizza Maniego-eala, said.

Helen Grace T. Marquez, MIDC President, said the sale of the towers will help position MIDC as a “major provider of sustainable digital infrastructure in the Philippines.”

“This latest milestone in our collaboration with Globe brings us closer to realizing our shared mission of improved internet connectivity which is essential in our post-pandemic economic recovery,” she said.

Cumulatively, Globe has already completed 34 percent of the sale or a total of 2,410 towers out of 7,059 have been transferred to the tower companies.

“With Globe’s bid to provide superior customer service to Filipinos nationwide, we have been investing heavily into our network these past years alongside developing relevant products and services that optimize this infrastructure. We believe that our current partnerships with the tower companies will help us enhance our capex spending and our tower builds moving forward,” Globe President ernest l. Cu said.

Globe started selling off its towers in August this year. The total consideration for the whole sale-and-leaseback initiative is roughly P71 billion.

In November, the company reported that it saw its profits surging by almost half in January to September due to the gains it realized from the sale of its data center and tower businesses.

The Ayala-led telco booked a net income of P26.5 billion, a 48-percent rise from P18 billion the year prior. This was driven mainly by a 3-percent increase in revenues to P118 billion as well as the P8.4 billion onetime net gain from the sale of its data center business and the P1.4 billion sale-and-leaseback transaction of its tower assets.