The Ayala Group’s Globe Telecom said on Tuesday that core net income increased by 13 percent to P5.8 billion in the first quarter of 2024, excluding non-recurring charges, foreign exchange, and mark-to-market charges.
Consolidated gross service revenues grew by 3 percent to P41.1 billion, driven by robust growth in mobile and corporate data businesses, which accounted for 83 percent of the topline, a stock exchange filing showed.
Despite higher depreciation expenses and non-operating charges, mobile revenues grew by 8 percent and corporate data revenues climbed by 10 percent.
Big GCash contributions, lower spending
Globe cut capital spending by 22 percent to P13.7 billion, focusing on optimizing capital deployment.
Moreover, its financial technology arm Mynt–the operator of the GCash mobile wallet–significantly contributed P962 million to equity earnings, now accounting for 11 percent of net income before tax.
Management’s view
Globe Telecom president and CEO Ernest Cu said earnings during the quarter exceeded expectations, citing the company’s 52 percent surge in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization margin.
He also cited good progress with the sale of cell towers, helping the telco giant redeploy capital to new investments.
“We have put in place plans to ensure that the majority of the proceeds will come in by the first half of the year. This move puts us in a solid position to meet the dynamic connectivity demands of our customers and stay at the forefront of the industry,” Cu said.
