EARNINGS: Globe Telecom net income declines by 24% to P7.4B

Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. on Friday said its bottom line in the first nine months of this year plunged by almost a quarter as its revenues slid due to the proliferation of “unlimited" promos. Globe ended the January-September period with a net income of P7.4 billion, down by 24 percent year-on-year from P9.9 billion. The firm’s revenue fell to P45.8 billion in the three-quarter period, down by 2 percent from last year. At a press briefing Friday, Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said they expect earnings to slowly improve as it sees itself ending the year with a record 26 million subscribers. As of end-September, Globe said its subscriber base reached 25.4 million, up by 10 percent from last year’s 23.1 million. “The growth in the firm’s post-paid user base should mean an improvement in the company’s profits," Cu said. The company’s base of post-paid users — who often spend more than prepaid users — reached 980,000 subscribers in the nine-month period, up 16 percent from last year, the telephone firm said. “Despite a maturing mobile market, we continue to attract new business owing to our attractive offers and healthy partnership with device manufacturers," Cu said. He said the company is now focused on gaining higher-quality subscribers, not fickle users that spend very little and often tend to switch from one network to another. Broadband subscribers also breached the 1 million-user mark at the end of the third quarter, or nearly double compared with same period of last year. “We are seeing encouraging improvements this quarter. Broadband is still a high-growth area and revenues continued to grow at double-digit rates, with our pioneering WiMAX [wireless interoperability microwave access] service becoming an increasingly important growth driver," Cu said. Globe is a joint venture between local conglomerate Ayala Corp. and SingTel. -- JE/OMG, GMANews.TV