Globe Telecom Inc. said Wednesday core income rose 6 percent, but net profit fell 4 percent in 2016 from a year ago amid the stiff competition in the telecommunications industry.
Globe, which is led by Ayala Corp., said core income hit P16.01 billion last year, up from P15.13 billion in 2015.
“Notwithstanding the heightened market competition in 2016, we still managed to end the year on a high note, marked by all-time high quarterly and full-year revenues and record-level Ebitda [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization],” Globe president and chief executive Ernest Cu said.
Consolidated revenues went up 6 percent to a record P120 billion last year from P113.7 billion in 2015.
“Our sustained growth momentum is evidence of the underlying strengths of our superior products and services and our conscious effort to create wonderful experiences for our customers,” Cu said.
Globe’s net income, however, fell 4 percent to P15.9 billion last year from P16.5 billion in 2015. The company blamed the decline in net profit to the increased non-operating expenses, which included the P1.1 billion costs related to the acquisition of Vega Telecom Inc. and the company’s share in net losses of joint venture, spectrum amortization and interest expenses related to the additional debt incurred from the VTI transaction.
“As we move forward in 2017, we are optimistic that we will maintain our growth trajectory as we continue to strengthen our leadership in the digital space, through the use of innovation and partnerships with global content providers,” Cu said.
“We are confident that our aggressive investments in our network will meet the country’s future digital demands,” he said.
Globe’s mobile revenues slightly grew to P91.9 billion in 2016 from P91.2 billion in 2015, driven by the continued shift from core voice and texts in favor of data.
TM, the company’s mass-market brand, registered 3-percent revenue growth from last year, while Globe Postpaid revenues posted a slight 1-percent rise from 2015, partly offset by Globe Prepaid revenues, which posted a year-on-year decline of 1 percent.
Globe’s mobile subscriber base reached 62.8 million as of end-December, up by 12 percent from 56.2 million subscribers reported in 2015, driven by the record-level prepaid gross acquisitions during the year despite the increased blended churn rates.
Globe said mobile data was now the biggest contributor to total mobile revenues with 38 percent, outpacing voice at 37 percent despite the industry aggression in data pricing in the second half of the year.
Mobile data service revenues reached P34.6 billion in 2016, or 25 percent higher than P27.7 billion reported a year ago.
Globe spent P36.7 billion or $772 million in capital expenditures last year to support the growing subscriber base and its demand for data.