Converge ICT Solutions Inc. said Thursday net income went up 17.5 percent in the first nine months from a year ago on the reacceleration of subscriber base despite the macroeconomic challenges.
The company said net income amounted to P6.1 billion from January to September, up from P5.19 billion in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues grew 30 percent to P24.48 billion in the nine-month period from P18.83 billion a year earlier in line with management’s revised full-year annual guidance of 25 percent to 30 percent this year.
Converge ICT chief financial advisor Matthias Vukovich attributed the solid growth in revenues to the “reacceleration” of subscriber base and lower churn rate.
Converge ended with 1.85 million residential subscribers, mostly from Visayas and Mindano as of end-September as it continues to expand in key regions.
The company said that in the third quarter, 15.8 percent of gross ads came from the Visayas and Mindanao, compared to only 5 percent in the second quarter.
The company’s average churn rates also improved from the second quarter’s 2.5 percent to less than 2 percent in the third quarter as it reinstated advance payment requirements for new residential subscribers starting June.
Vukovich said the company expected monthly churn rates to gradually trend back to around 1.5 percent levels.
Revenues from residential business grew by 30.5 percent to P21.36 billion from P16.37 billion, driven by a 16-percent year-on-year growth in subscriber base.
Enterprise revenue growth continued to accelerate, growing by 26.9 percent to P3.11 billion from P2.45 billion last year, with solid growth across all enterprise segments such as small and medium enterprise, large enterprise and wholesale.
“Amid these challenges, we remained focused in our mission to reach the unserved and underserved areas i the country. Thus, we continued to pursue our expansion strategy, with our extensive infrastructure network now reaching 600,000 fiber kilometers as of September 2022,” said Converge chief executive and co-founder Dennis Anthony Uy.
The company deployed 411,320 new fiber-to-the-home ports in the third quarter, increasing its nationwide network reach to more than 14.3 million homes passed as of September this year.
Converge, which has more than 6.7 million fiber ports throughout the country, operates the largest fiber infrastructure network in the Philippines.
The company achieved a 53-percent nationwide household coverage and was on track to reach its accelerated target to cover about 55 percent of households in the Philippines by 2023.