Globe Telecom Inc. on Wednesday reported a 29-percent drop in net income last year to P24.6 billion from P34.60 billion in 2022.
The telecom unit of the Ayala Group blamed the lower profit to the higher depreciation expenses and the absence of one-time net gain on the partial sale of Globe’s data center business that was booked in the first quarter of 2022.
It said excluding the impact of the one-time gains, normalized net income would have been P19.1 billion, down by 4 percent from 2022.
Globe said core net income, which excludes the impact of non-recurring charges, one-time gain, foreign exchange gains and mark-to-market charges, reached P18.9 billion, down by 1 percent year-on-year.
“Globe reached new heights in 2023 despite the lingering macroeconomic challenges and competition we faced … Our non-telco businesses contributed more this year whether on the revenue line or in the equity earnings line, fueling our momentum going into the new year,” Globe president and chief executive Ernest Cu said.
“As we move forward to 2024, we are very optimistic that we will achieve continued growth by executing our customer-focused strategy and enhancing innovations using digital solutions backed by our firm commitment to network excellence. We will push the boundaries of what’s possible in the telecom industry to create greater value for our customer, stakeholder and the broader digital systems,” Cu said.
Consolidated service revenues rose 3 percent to P162.3 billion from P158 billion, due to the outstanding performance of the mobile and corporate data business as completed by the robust growth from its non-telco services.
The company’s mobile business revenues posted a 5-percent increase to P112.4 billion from P107.5 billion in 2022 mostly coming from the prepaid brands.
Home broadband service revenues went down by 7 percent to P25.1 billion, while corporate data revenues improved 7 percent to P18.31 billion.
Globe allocated $1 billion for 2024 capital expenditures, lower than $1.3 billion in 2023. The reduced capex is mainly on the company’s continued focus on optimizing capital deployment and bringing free cash flow to more sustainable levels.
Globe built 1,217 new cell sites, upgraded close to 7,000 mobile sites to LTE and installed 849 new 5G sites nationwide in 2024.
It also deployed over 199,000 fiber-to-the-home lines in 2023 as the company continues to maximize the use of its existing fiber inventory and ensure the delivery of the right product to the underserved prepaid market.