Despite the anticipated stiff competition in the market, Globe Telecom Inc. expects to increase its revenue by mid to high single digit this year driven by the continued growth in data usage of consumers and the enterprise business segment.
Globe’s consolidated service revenues in 2019 rose 12 percent to P149 billion, fueled by the gains from data across mobile, broadband and corporate data services.
Total data revenues now account for 71 percent of total service revenues versus 61 percent last year, as more Filipinos adopt the digital lifestyle, the company said.
Globe expects to sustain the growth this year.
“The company believes that the overall business momentum built, and the product platforms that are in place, coupled with the aggressive investments made in the Globe network would allow revenues to increase by mid to high single digit from 2019 level,” it said.
Consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 17 percent to P76 billion in 2019, from P65 billion in 2018.
“EBITDA margin is expected to be in the low 50s (for 2020), as margins will be continuously impacted by the increasing contribution of lower-margin data-related products, and efforts in managing costs,” Globe said.
Globe’s consolidated net income jumped 20 percent to P22.3 billion. Its core net income also grew year on year by 20 percent to P22.5 billion in 2019, from P18.7 billion in 2018.
“2019 proved to be another good year for Globe despite the changing industry environment. We ended 2019 with a positive set of financial results and more importantly significant gains on the network front. These results serve as a springboard for the opportunities and challenges that lay ahead, and will help us better serve our expanded mobile and broadband customer base of over 96 million,” Ernest Cu, Globe president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
“We will continue this momentum through 2020 as we remain committed to our goal of delivering first-world internet connectivity to the Philippines,” Cu added.
Globe is spending P63 billion in capital expenditures (capex) in 2020 which includes spillover of capex commitments from 2019. The capex this year is higher than last year‘s P51 billion spending or around $989 million.
Bulk of the capex last year was spent on data-related requirements, comprising 79 percent.
Globe said this record spending allowed it to make significant gains and fast-track its network rollout during the year.
As of December 2019, the company put up 139 percent more sites versus 2018 and added more 3G and 4G base stations, putting up 28 percent more than in 2018.
Globe said these gains benefited customers as evidenced in the latest results of third party network quality test providers, which showed its Long Term Evolution download and upload speeds, and latency in the fourth quarter of 2019 improved nearly 16 percent, 6 percent, and 9 percent, respectively, compared to the same period the prior year.
These improvements were achieved despite a 58 percent growth in mobile data traffic over the same time period, it added.
Globe reported revenues from the mobile business rose 12 percent to P111.8 billion, surpassing the P99.5 billion posted a year earlier.
As the mobile segment continued to dominate the Philippine market, Globe said mobile revenues remained the largest revenue contributor, accounting for 75 percent of the total service revenues led by its prepaid brands.
As of end-December 2019, Globe’s mobile subscriber base stood at 94.2 million, up 27 percent from 74 million in 2018.
