Globe secures USD40m loan for expansion, debt refinancing

The Philippines’ second largest telecoms operator Globe Telecom is raising additional monies to refinance its existing obligations and fund its network expansion, signing a USD40 million term loan facility with the Bank of the Philippine Islands. In a filing Globe said: ‘The loan shall be used to partially finance the company’s maturing obligations, capital expenditures and general corporate requirements’. It previously allocated a CAPEX budget of about USD850 million for FY 2018, which it subsequently upped to USD950 million to accelerate the deployment of broadband services ahead of the entry of the New Major Player (NMP), Mindanao Islamic Telephone Co (Mislatel). The consortium of China Telecommunications, Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp and Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp has been declared the NMP and provisionally awarded spectrum at 700MHz, 2000MHz, 2100MHz, 2500MHz, 3.3GHz and 3.5GHz.