Globe Telecom of the Philippines has signed a PHP5 billion (USD114 million) loan with Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCB) to fund its capital expenditure for next year. The details of the seven-year loan, the second major borrowing announcement from Globe in recent weeks, were disclosed in a filing to the local stock exchange.
As reported earlier this month by CommsUpdate, Globe intends to spend USD790 million in a network upgrade and IT re-engineering programme as it seeks to strengthen its market position in a highly competitive sector. The announcement marks the telco’s biggest CAPEX in the last 20 years, with work to be carried out in the next two to three years, it said. Globe is looking to bolster its position in the wake of market leader PLDT’s recent acquisition of third-placed Filipino telco Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc (Digitel). ‘Given the growing demand for bandwidth-heavy services, the modernisation programme will bring significant improvements to network capacity leading to improved reliability, ease of access and pervasive coverage,’ Globe said in a statement.