Globe Telecom Inc. said Wednesday net income dropped 10 percent in the first nine months because of lower revenues brought about by prolonged community quarantine in the country.
The Ayala-led telco said net income reached P15.88 billion in the January-September period this year, down from P17.68 billion in the same period last year.
Core net income also declined by 13 percent to P15.61 billion from last year’s P17.86 billion.
“We are pleased with the performance Globe delivered this period, especially considering the extraordinary circumstances our country is facing,” said Ernest Cu, president and chief executive of Globe.
“We believe, on the back of our continued network investments, that we are ready to seize these opportunities to help our customers and the nation succeed in this new environment,” he said.
Consolidated revenues slightly went down by 1 percent to P109.1 billion in the first nine months from the record P110.6 billion it achieved a year ago.
From a product view, mobile data revenues generated P53.4 billion in the first nine months, up from P52.1 billion in same the period last year, as consumers turned to online platforms to shop, telework and connect with families and friends.
Mobile voice and mobile SMS revenues ended at P15.3 billion and P8.6 billion, lower by 16 percent and 29 percent, respectively, as the COVID- 19 pandemic accelerated the shift to data-based services.
Home broadband posted a 22 percent year-on-year revenue growth to reach P19.5 billion, up from P16.1 billion last year.
Total home broadband subscriber base exceeded 3.4 million as of end-September, up 82 percent from the first nine months of 2019, driven by the sustained increase of fixed wireless broadband users.
Corporate data revenues tapered by 3 percent year-on-year with total revenues of P9.3 billion as of end-September, largely coming from lower domestic and international services.
Globe said it invested P33.4 billion in capital expenditures in the first nine months out of the P50.3-billion budget this year.
“We remain committed to deliver our planned site builds for 2020, despite the varying degrees of community quarantines and our limited workforce out in the field. With the easing of requirements, we were able to secure over 700 permits last August and September, which consists of both building and certificates of final electrical inspection permits,” Cu said.
“These permits complement our target network expansion and will help us continue the momentum of our aggressive cell site rollout,” he said.
Meanwhile, Globe said the executive committee of its board of directors approved the acquisition of the assets of US-based entities Cascadeo Corp. and Cascadeo Partners and Cascadeo’s Philippine subsidiary, Cascadeo Inc. for $4 million (P200 million).
Globe said that its executive committee also approved the creation of new entities through which the acquisition would be made.
Globe said that along with Cascadeo, it would make follow-up investments to fund the company’s expansion strategies.