Globe Telecom earmarks P63B for 2019 capex

Globe Telecom Inc. on Tuesday said it plans to spend P20 billion more this year than its spending program in 2018, as the telco invests more in sustaining the demand for mobile data.

The plan is to spend P63.0 billion or approximately $1.2 billion on addressing data traffic growth and supporting LTE rollout, the company said during a press conferred led by its president and CEO Ernest Cu.

The numbers compare with the P43.3 billion or about $821 million spent in 2018.

Chief financial officer Rizza Maniego-Eala noted Globe will finance expenditure through a mix of internal cash and debt. “Through our operating cash and also through additional debt for 2019," she told reporters during the press conference at the company’s headquarters in Taguig City’s Global City.

“Any borrowing will be pushed towards the latter part of the second quarter. We continue to review the rates and availability of liquidity of the market,” she said.

The company closed 2018 with a net income of P18.4 billion, up 22 percent a year earlier, despite a 22-percent drop in net income to P3.809 billion quarter-on-quarter in October to December.

As of end-2018, Globe registered 1.6 million in home broadband subscriber base, up 24 percent from a year earlier.

What those number mean is that “we have successfully met our minimum broadband coverage commitment,” said Cu.

“We will continue to build our network capacities to improve the internet experience as we re-invest our gains back to our network, which is now close to 33 percent of our revenues, to be able to deliver a differentiated level of customer service,” he added. —VDS, GMA News