ABS-CBN Corp., the biggest broadcasting comnpany, said it borrowed P4.75 billion from Union Bank of the Philippines to refinance debt and partly fund expansion plans this year.
The broadcasting network owned by the Lopez Group said it signed a P4.75-billion loan agreement with Union Bank to refinance a syndicated loan secured in 2010.
With a maturity of 10 years, the loan aims to finance the network’s capital expenditures.
ABS-CBN’s current projects include the building of stages for TV and film production, and the construction of additional transmission towers to expand the coverage of its digital terrestrial television initiative to some cities in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
The broadcasting network earlier said it planned to build 10 Hollywood-style studios in Bulacan province until 2016 in a bid to cut production costs and improve the quality of television shows.
The broadcast firm said in 2013 it would invest P6 billion for the construction of the sound stages.
The network aims to save about 65 percent to 75 percent in shooting location costs, with the construction of the modern sound stages.
About 80 percent of ABS-CBN’s production is remote and only 20 percent is shot in studio.
ABS-CBN last year had programmed P600 million to expand the coverage of its digital DTT service.
ABS-CBN last week signed a partnership agreement with IBM as part of a strategy to modernize the information and technology network of the broadcast company.
ABS-CBN under the agreement will transfer its application management services to IBM.
ABS-CBN earlier reported a net income of P1.89 billion in the January-to-September period last year, up from P1.54 billion in the same period in 2014.
ABS-CBN’s consolidated revenues in the first nine months of 2015 increased 11 percent to P27.8 billion from P25.06 billion a year earlier.
