Globe Telecom Inc. said Wednesday net income in the first quarter jumped 43 percent to P4.2 billion from P2.95 billion a year ago, on higher service revenues.
Globe, the telecom unit of Ayala Corp., said core profit, which excludes foreign exchange and mark-to-market gains and losses as well as other non-recurring items, also grew 25 percent to P4.18 billion in the January-March period from P3.36 billion in the same period last year.
“We are happy that we maintained our growth momentum for the first quarter of the year, despite the heightened level of competition,” Globe president and chief executive Ernest Cu said.
He said the core net income improvement in the first the quarter proved that Globe was the “preferred brand of choice among Filipino consumers.”
Consolidated service revenues hit P26.2 billion in the first quarter, or 13 percent higher than P23.3 billion last year.
The sustained growth trajectory was due to Globe’s mobile business, which grew 10 percent to P20.3 billion and its broadband business, which expanded 31 percent to P3.66 billion.
Globe’s mobile phone subscriber base reached 46.2 million as of end-March, including 43.84 million prepaid users and 2.27 million postpaid subscribers.
Broadband subscribers reached 3.1 million.
“Our move towards enhanced digital lifestyle experience for our customers with our revolutionary and innovative suite of products and services is starting to bear fruit given the results in the first quarter of 2015,” Cu said.
“We believe that our modernized data-ready network and our strong commitment to innovation powered by our collaborative partnerships with global content providers, we can achieve sustainable financial growth moving forward,” he said.
Globe allocated $500 million this year to expand its 3G and LTE network. It would build a combined 5,000 LTE sites over the next 24 months.
Globe has a total of 25,820 base stations, with over 15,900 for 4G to support the service requirements of its subscribers.