Ayala-led Globe Telecom reported consolidated service revenue of PHP95.14 billion (USD1.86 billion) for the nine months ending 30 September 2017, 6% higher than the PHP89.53 billion reported in the year-ago period, a record high. Nine-month EBITDA reached PHP40.62 billion, up 8% on an annualised basis, and net income climbed 11% year-on-year to PHP12.98 billion from PHP11.72 billion. Core net income, however, dipped 5% to PHP11.21 billion. In a financial filing, the telco noted: ‘the third consecutive quarter of all-time high revenues reflects the robustness of the growing data segment led by mobile and home broadband … enabled by … innovative digital services and content partnerships with iconic global companies, underpinned by the continuous deployment of [Globe’s] leading-edge network technology.’ Mobile revenues generated the lion’s share of the total, up 7% y-o-y to PHP73.11 billion for January-September 2017, fuelled by strong uptake in mobile data. Meanwhile, the operator said its mass market brands (Globe Prepaid and TM), saw growth of 11% and 9% respectively, while its Globe Postpaid brand reported y-o-y growth of 1%. Mobile data contributed 43% of total revenue (PHP31.31 billion) in 9M17, versus 38% (PHP26.06 billion) a year ago as smartphone penetration increased to 70% by end-September. Mobile data traffic, meanwhile, improved 73% y-o-y from 249PB to 430PB.
As at 30 September 2017 Globe had a total subscriber base of 59.331 million mobile users, down 9% from 65.363 million twelve months earlier, attributed in part to a change in the reporting of the company’s pre-paid subscribers. Pre-paid users accounted for 56.858 million at the same date, down 10% y-o-y. Globe Postpaid ARPU was PHP1.176 per month in the period under review, and pre-paid ARPU was PHP113 for Globe Prepaid (8%) and PHP66 for TM (8%). Average monthly churn narrowed to 2.6% from 3.5% in 9M17, although pre-paid churn widened to 7.8% (Globe Prepaid) and 8.5%™. Globe spent around PHP36.8 billion in capital expenditures as of end-September 2017 to support the growing subscriber base and its demand for data. 84% of total capital expenditures for the period was spent on data-related initiatives. To date, Globe has a total of over 24,000 base stations for 4G.