Globe revenues rise but profit down 29%

GLOBE Telecom Inc. saw a 29-percent drop in net income last year to P24.6 billion, down 29 percent from the previous year’s P34.6 billion, on higher depreciation expenses and the absence of a one-time gain booked in 2022.

The Ayala-led telco said the prior year’s results had been boosted by a one-time net gain, post-tax, of P8.5 billion from the partial sale of Globe’s data center business.

Excluding the impact of this oneoff gain, normalized net income would have been P19.1 billion, down by 4 percent year on year, it said.

On the other hand, it said consolidated service revenues last year had hit a “new all-time high” of P162.3 billion, up 3 percent from the previous year’s record P158 billion due to the “exceptional contributions” of its mobile, corporate data and non-telco services.

Service revenues were also supported by an 18-percent year-onyear growth in its non-telco business.

Core net income — which excludes the impact of non-recurring charges, foreign exchange and markto-market charges — stood at P18.9 billion, down 1 percent from the previous year’s P19.2 billion.

“Globe reached new heights in 2023 despite the lingering macroeconomic challenges and competition we faced,” company President Ernest Cu said in a statement.

“Our non-telco businesses contributed more this year, whether on the revenue line or in the equity earnings line, fueling our momentum going into the new year,” he added.

“As we move forward to 2024, we are very optimistic that we will achieve continued growth by executing well on our customer-focused strategy and enhancing innovations using digital solutions backed by OUR fiRM COMMITMENT TO NETWORK excellence,” Cu continued.

“We will push the boundaries of what’s possible in the telecom industry to create greater value for our customers, stakeholders and the broader, digital systems.”

Globe’s mobile business revenues grew 5 percent to P112.4 billion from last year’s P107.5 billion, boosted by its prepaid brands.

Home broadband service revenues stood at P25.1 billion, down 7 percent, while corporate data revenues improved by 7 percent to P18.31 billion.

Capital expenditures for this year were set at $1 billion, down from last year’s $1.3 billion, as the telco focuses on optimizing capital deployment and bringing free cash flOW TO MORE SUSTAINABLE LEVELS.

Capital spending last year was P70.6 billion, 30 percent lower than in 2022.

Globe said it built over 1,217 new cell sites, upgraded close to 7,000 mobile sites to LTE, and installed 849 new 5G sites nationwide last year.

It also deployed more than 199,000 fiBER-TO-THE-HOME LINES TO MAXIMIZE THE USE OF ITS EXISTING fiBER inventory and ensure delivery of the right products to an underserved prepaid market.

Globe shares were down P22, or P1.26 percent, at P1,178 each on Wednesday while the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 1.11 percent.