Broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions has released its latest financial results, highlighting ‘record growth and profitability’ in January-March 2021 as revenues climbed 83.6% to PHP5.547 billion (USD115.93 million) from PHP3.021 billion in 1Q20, fuelled by strong subscriber and ARPU growth, and EBITDA surged 101.6% year-on-year to PHP3.052 billion, with an EBITDA margin of 55.0% (1Q20: 50.1%). Further, the company said that net income near-tripled to PHP1.549 billion from PHP574 million in 1Q20 as its ongoing fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network rollout delivered 500,000 new ports in the first quarter, resulting in 28% household coverage across the Philippines, and 50% coverage in Luzon. Converge’s nationwide network reached more than 7.1 million homes by end-March 2021, with the provider claiming it was on track to reach its target to cover approximately 55% of households in the Philippines by 2025.
The company reported that residential subscribers grew to almost 1.182 million as of 31 March 2021 up from 615,466 a year earlier and claimed that – based on publicly available information – it captured a ‘48% market share of fixed broadband net adds amongst the three largest broadband operators in the Philippines’, helping boost segment market share from 19% in March 2020 to 27% in March 2021. The ISP noted that as a result of pent-up demand for fixed broadband connectivity services in the Philippines, it estimates that around 95% of its new subscribers in Q1 2021 were first-time fixed broadband users, adding that monthly residential blended ARPU also improved from PHP1,284 in 1Q20 to P1,390 in the period under review. Converge also reported 12,400 enterprise customers at end-March 2021, up from 10,378 a year earlier.