Tax gains help boost Globe's quarterly earnings

MANILA, Philippines - Tax gains helped propped up Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc.’s quarterly earnings, the company said. Net income from January to March this year improved by 17 percent to almost P4 billion from P3.42 billion, Globe said in a statement, citing a P398 million tax gain from an equipment exchange transaction with a supplier. Meanwhile, Globe’s core net income – excluding foreign exchange and mark-to-market gains and losses – grew by five percent to P3.67 billion from P3.51 billion. Consolidated service revenues rose three percent to P15.96 billion from P15.54 billion with wireless revenues cornering 87 percent of the revenues but posting a flat growth amounting to P13.89 billion. Globe said wireless voice segment accounted for 53 percent of total wireless service revenues and grew by two percent to P7.34 billion due to higher local bulk voice revenues and subscriptions to unlimited voice packages. IDD voice revenues also improved on the back of increased traffic as well as gains from the 16 percent year-on-year peso depreciation. Sustaining its growth momentum, Globe introduced a single, easy-to-recall access code “8888" for all its bulk and unlimited SMS and voice promos such as Unlitxt, TodoText, Sulitxt, Everybodytxt, Unlicalls Nyt, Todo Tawag Magdamag, TxtOthers, and ITXT. To drive subscriber acquisitions, Globe launched a hybrid prepaid and postpaid plan called Load Tipid Plans to allow subscribers set a monthly limit on usage while retaining the flexibility to reload value through the usual channels once their limits have been reached. It is introducing Globe DUO combining a mobile and wireless landline service into one handset. Unlimited calls to any landline within the same area code can be made as well as mobile calls to other DUO subscribers, all for an incremental monthly service fee of P 399 on top of a postpaid plan. Cumulative wireline voice subscribers rose three percent to 423,447 from 411,411 on higher activations from subscriptions to DSL broadband bundles. Broadband subscribers rose 107 percent to 287,180 from 138,421 with fully mobile broadband subscribers comprising almost three-fourths of the quarter’s subscriber growth. Revenues from the wireless business were flat to reach P14.0 billion, while the wireline and broadband business grew 17 percent to close at a record high of P2.1 billion. “We are encouraged by the continued growth of our overall business, especially considering the challenging environment against which it was achieved," Globe President and CEO Ernest L. Cu said in a statement. The wireless business posted healthy subscriber growth with total SIM base increasing by 21 percent year-on-year to 25.7 million subscribers. While net additions remained healthy, average revenue per subscriber waned due to continued multi-SIM usage and low usage levels of new subscribers. “Moving forward, we will remain focused on enhancing our services, strengthening our brand propositions and product offers, and improving our processes to compete effectively in this highly demanding and competitive market," Cu said. Globe’s broadband expansion is on track as the company has started to grab a higher share of market growth, he added. Globe relaunched its fully mobile broadband service Globe Broadband Tattoo to appeal to young internet surfers who require on-the-go broadband connections. It is available in prepaid and postpaid variants that offer connections of up to two megabits per second. It has commercially launched its WiMAX (802.16e) service on the 2.5 gigahertz band, one of the first and largest of its kind in Southeast Asia. This service is currently available in selected key areas in South Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, offering broadband data only and data bundled with voice packages for P795 and P995 per month at connection speed of up to 512 kilobits per second. - GMANews.TV