In its 2011 financial and operating results released on Friday, Globe briefly mentioned in its 2012 consolidated outlook report that service “revenues up by low- to mid-single digits from 2011 level P67.88 billion.”
The cellular firm recorded an all-time high service revenues last year, 9-percent higher than the previous year’s P62 billion, aided by strong results from its mobile and broadband businesses.
Mobile subscribers stood at 30 million in 2011. The mobile business registered P54 billion in revenues while broadband, which registered 1.4 million users, posted P7.5 billion in revenues last year.
This helped boost the company’s full-year profit to P10 billion in 2011, up by 11 percent from the previous year. However, reported net income was flat at P9.8 billion at end-December last year from P9.7 billion in 2010 because there was a one-time adjustment of P526 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The cellular firm’s 13-percent increase in operating expenses last year to P32.7 billion from P29 billion in 2010 was mainly to be blamed for the drop in its fourth-quarter core net income to P1.85 billion from P2.5 billion in the third quarter of the same year and from P2.6 billion in the same period in 2010.
“Marketing and subsidy spend rose driven by investments in new acquisitions and recontracting of subscribers following the iPhone 4S launch coupled with the BlackBerry handset sale in the fourth period.” Also, the huge operating expense was driven by a “rise in network-related operating charges, as well as costs related to the company’s network and IT transformation programs.”
Globe is earmarking $790 million in network upgrade over the next five years, with $530 million to be spent in 2012 and $110 million in 2013.
For 2012, the cellular firm’s capex is estimated at $750 million to $800 million. This amount consists of the $530 million allotted for network transformation and $220 million for fixed line data investments, DSL capacity upgrades in selected regions, and submarine cable investments.
To fund this year’s capex, Globe will undertake a P15-billion retail bond program which is expected to provide it with “the option to tap the retail market in one or more tranches over the next 12 months.”
The cellular firm also declared a cash dividend of P32.50 per share payable on March 16 to shareholders on record as of February 24.
