Globe sells more telco towers to Unity

GLOBE Telecom Inc. on Tuesday said that it had closed the sale of 282 towers to Unity Digital Infrastructure (Unity), a partnership between Aboitiz InfraCapital (AIC) and Partners Group, for P3.4 billion.

This brought the total number of towers sold to Unity to 315, bringing completed transactions to date to P3.8 billion. Under a deal signed in May last year, Globe agreed to sell 447 towers to Unity for approximately P5.4 billion.

“The transaction will result in availability of funds for Globe to support future capital expenditures, debt repayments and debt avoidance with the expectation to improve the balance sheet health of the company,” the telco said in a statement.

Globe expects an estimated pretax net transaction gain of P1.8 billion from the latest deal.

Globe earlier this month offloaded 154 towers to Miescor Infrastructure Development Corp. (MIDC) for P1.85 billion. The transaction brought the number of towers acquired by MIDC to 1,348 towers worth P14.23 billion.

In August 2022, Globe agreed to sell and leaseback all its 5,709 telecommunications towers and relative passive infrastructure in two deals worth P71 billion.

Globe earlier reported a net income of P24.6 billion last year, down 29 percent from P34.60 billion in 2022. Excluding the impact of the one-time gains, normalized net income would have been P19.1 billion, down by 4 percent from 2022.

Globe’s consolidated service revenues were said to have grown by 3 percent to P162.3 billion from P158 billion last year, driven by the outstanding performance of the mobile and corporate data business.

Globe’s share price rose by P13 to close at P1,768 apiece on Tuesday.