Globe Profit Flat Despite Robust Subscriber Growth

Globe Telecom, the largest mobile operator in the Philippines by subscribers, saw mobile revenue growth slow in the second quarter of 2019 despite strong gains in both prepaid and post-paid subscribers, as its profit rose marginally year-on-year.

The operator’s net income inched up 0.5 percent year-on-year to PHP5.32 billion ($103 million), while service revenue increased 12.4 percent to PHP36.9 billion.

Mobile turnover growth slowed to 4.1 percent the April to June period to PHP27.7 billion (down from an 11 percent increase in Q1), with robust growth in mobile data (up 35 percent) offsetting sharp declines in voice (down 23 percent) and SMS (down 29 percent). Mobile data accounted for 47 percent of total revenue.

Ernest Cu, Globe president and CEO, said in a statement: “We are pleased with the company’s robust performance and that we are on track with our strategic objectives for this year. We will continue to invest in our 4G network to enhance the customer experience and reinforce our competitive advantage moving forward.”

Home broadband revenue increased 21 percent year-on-year in the quarter to PHP5.35 billion, as subscriptions (both fixed and fixed-wireless) also rose 21 percent to 1.8 million at end June.

The operator, with a 57 percent market share, added 27.8 million mobile subscribers from Q2 2018. Prepaid subs grew 44 percent to 90.3 million and post-paid increased 6 percent to 2.6 million.

Globe prepaid ARPU was down 13.5 percent from the same period a year ago to PHP109, while post-paid dipped 5 percent to PHP890.

Overall capex in the first six months of 2019 totalled PHP19 billion (down from 22.9 billion in January to June 2018 period), with the budget for the full year set at PHP43.3 billion.―Mobile World Live