Globe net income drops 16% in 2020

Globe Telecom Inc. saw a double-digit drop in its bottom line in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted its business las year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, Globe said its net income stood at P18.6 billion last year, a decline of 16% from P22.3 billion in 2019.

The Ayala-led telco said its consolidated service revenues slipped 2% to P146.4 billion from P149 billion year-on-year.

Globe said the decline in service revenues was “due mainly to the impact of the pandemic and the extended quarantine restrictions on all business segments except for Home Broadband.”

The telco said the robust performance of Home Broadband was offset by mobile, corporate data and fixed line voice, which all registered a decline against last year.

In particular, Globe’s mobile business revenues, which accounted for 70% of service revenues, declined by 7% to P103.1 billion from P111 billion in 2019.

Corporate data, meanwhile, saw a 3% decline to P12.5 billion in 2020 from P13 billion due to “slowdown in revenues coming from domestic and international services.”

Fixed line voice also declined by 2% to P2.62 billion from P2.668 billion a year earlier.

Home broadband saw an increase by 23% to P26.8 billion from P21.7 billion year-on-year as subscriber base now stands at 3.8 million, up 88% from the year earlier, driven mainly by the sustained increase in fixed wireless broadband users, which was up by 122% versus last year.

Nonetheless, Globe said it spent P60.3 billion last year, 86% of which went to data-related requirements to meet the growing data demands.

Despite the COVD-19 crisis, the telco said it was able to build close to 1,300 new cell sites or cell towers, up from 1,100 the previous year.

It also upgraded a total of 11,529 cell sites 4G/LTE in 2020, higher than the 10,135 in 2019.

Moreover, Globe said it deployed 5G sites in Metro Manila, as well as certain cities in Visayas and Mindanao making 5G available in 1,045 areas in the country.

For 2021, Globe said it is spending P70 billion in capital expenditures to “execute the company’s network roll-out strategy that includes aggressive cell site builds, upgrade of all its sites to Fourth Generation/Long-Term Evolution technology (4G/LTE), and fast-tracking the fiberization of Filipino homes nationwide.” — RSJ, GMA News