Globe Telecom Inc. said Monday the mobile data and broadband businesses boosted its net income by 44 percent in the first quarter to P6.7 billion from P4.7 billion a year ago.
Core net income, which excludes the impact of non-recurring charges and foreign exchange and mark-to-market charges, also jumped 40 percent to P6.7 billion from the same period last year.
“For 2019, we are confident in our ability to maintain this strong growth momentum with the aggressive investments in the network, coupled with the evolving lifestyle bundles that aim to strongly influence the digital life of Filipinos,” said Globe president and chief executive Ernest Cu.
“We believe this would allow the full-year 2019 revenues to increase by high single-digits from 2018 levels,” he added.
Globe’s consolidated service revenues reached P36 billion, up 13 percent from a year ago and 3 percent from the previous quarter.
“This was mainly fueled by a sustained increase in data usage across all data-related services and products, including the wide array of content offerings, through the company’s partnerships with global content providers,” Globe said.
Mobile revenues grew 11 percent in the first to P27 billion from a year ago and 4 percent from the previous quarter, mostly coming from the prepaid brands.
Mobile data revenues amounted to P16.5 billion in the first three months of the year with the surge in consumer spending on mobile data and the rising popularity of promos that provide the best surfing deals.
Mobile voice and mobile SMS revenues reached P6.3 billion and P4.2 billion in the first quarter, lower by 15 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
Globe closed the first three months with a total mobile subscriber base of 83.5 million, up 13 percent from the fourth quarter of 2018.
Globe’s home broadband business increased 21 percent in the first quarter to P5.2 billion from a year ago and 3 percent from the fourth quarter.
Corporate data business showed a 16-percent year-on-year growth. This was mainly from internet and domestic services coupled with the 5-percent higher circuit count.
Globe’s total operating expenses and subsidy amounted to P16.1 billion or 1 percent higher year- on-year.
Globe spent around P8.8 billion in capital expenditures or 24 percent of topline revenues. About 68 percent of the total expenditures in the quarter was for data-related services.
“As we continue to invest in our LTE network, we are also excited with the growth opportunities of our 5G commercial pilot launch in June this year,” Cu said.
“Through this launch, we will be able to offer our customers a whole new ecosystem of devices to enhance the way they experience data to the home. This is in line with our proven strategy of making our customers a priority, by providing them a superior digital and network experience, despite all the industry challenges that we face ahead,” he said.
