Globe Telecom secures PHP4bn loan facility from Metrobank

Filipino operator Globe Telecom today signed a PHP4 billion (USD92 million) loan facility from Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co (Metrobank) to cover a portion of its outstanding debts and fund CAPEX projects for next year. In a filing to the local bourse, Globe said the facility, the third loan signed by the telco this year, is payable over five years. The firm’s CFO Alberto de Larrazabal said Globe was looking to take advantage of the current ‘favourable interest rate environment’, noting that there was an opportunity to ‘generate savings and at the same time lengthen [its] debt maturity profile’. The funds will be used to pre-pay PHP3 billion in debt due to mature in 2012, with the remainder allocated for 2011 capital expenditure requirements.