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GLOBE
Telecom expects revenue growth to taper off this year,
saying the trend appears to have softened amidst a
slowdown in the economy.
“We
think it is difficult to achieve a double-digit revenue
growth rate this year. We are seeing some softening in
the trend in revenues. It may have something to do with
rising inflation, continued economic slowdown, and
stronger peso,” Globe president Gerardo Ablaza said in a
press briefing after the company’s annual general
meeting Tuesday.
These
developments come on the heel of election-related
activities that helped boost 2007 revenues by 11-percent
year-on-year. “Last year, we were blessed by robust
revenues brought by election related spending. We don’t
have that this year,” Ablaza added.
In 2007,
Globe’s consolidated service revenues increased to P63.2
billion. Its net income rose to P13.3 billion, up 13
percent from a year earlier.
The
president of the country’s second-largest phone firm
said earnings would tend to emulate revenue growth.
“Whatever increase in revenue tends to have an effect in
the bottomline,” Ablaza said.
The
company has set aside a capital expenditure (capex) of
$400 million to $450 million this year. Globe had
already signed with Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. a P2.5
billion, five-year, term-loan facility to partly finance
the capex.
Globe
chief financial officer Delfin Gonzalez said yesterday
the company will also borrow from Standard Chartered
Bank the amount of P2 billion to P5 billion.
“Our
total borrowings this year will be P7.5 billion. We are
in the final stages of firming up a loan with Standard
Chartered. We are looking at P2 billion to P5 billion
for a three- to five-year loan,” Gonzalez said.
Of this
year’s capex, $180 million will go to broadband; $130
million to increase capacity of its 2G (second
generation) mobile network; $100 million to transmission
investments; and the balance to information technology
related spending.
Globe,
controlled by conglomerate Ayala Corp. and partly owned
by Singapore Telecommunications, said the broadband
business would continue to strongly contribute to the
performance of the company.
Last
year, Globe broadband subscriber increase by 133 percent
to 120,000 and broadband service revenues shot up 96
percent to P1.2 billion.
“Broadband is like the mobile business eight to 10 years
ago. We are confident that the broadband business will
be a promising area,” Ablaza said.
The
company intends to double its broadband subscribers this
year. “We are bullish about the broadband business and
intend to intensify our efforts to build a more
pervasive network, using both wired and wireless
technologies,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ablaza described the mobile-phone subscriber
take-up in the first quarter as “healthy.” As of
end-2007, Globe cellular subscribers hit 20.3 million.
“Our
cellular subscriber base is holding to the pace of
fourth quarter last year which is typically a strong
quarter,” he said. |
