Globe reports ‘record quarter’ amid weak economy

MANILA — Telco giant Globe reported record high financial numbers in the first nine months of the year amid global and domestic economic challenges.

Globe President and CEO Carl Cruz said the company remains resilient as Filipinos still use or purchases their services amid a difficult macroeconomic environment where inflation remains high and with the country’s gross domestic product only hitting 2.1 percent in the third quarter.

Globe’s consolidated gross service revenues reach an all-time high of P129 billion in the first three quarters. That’s up 6 percent from the same period last year. Third quarter alone was also a record at P43.6 billion.

Cruz described it a “record quarter”.

“Our nine month performance puts us in a very good position heading into the final quarter of the year. Service revenues reached P129 billion delivering a, I think, best in industry year-on-year service revenue growth,” Cruz said. 

He attributed the growth to the growing demand for telco-related services among Filipinos despite difficult economic times. The company reported that mobile revenues also hit an all-time high of P91.4 billion due to the customers’ data usage on streaming, gaming, e-commerce, AI applications, digital payments and more.

“There is continued demand for our core services and we’re also seeing right now as the digital economy of the Philippines continues to grow, the level of participation and our ability to continue to serve the Filipino people again gives us a source of growth,” he added. 

Cruz said despite various business units growing, they continue to monitor economic developments, but at the same time remain confident of hitting full year targets this year.

“We will continue to monitor market conditions, very tough market conditions we operate today and customer demands as we navigate, as I said, the very difficult macro economic conditions in the country,’ he said.

Globe’s data center unit, STT GDC, is on track to hit 30 MW capacity by yearend and about 1,500 5g sites have added so far this year. 

While Mynt, parent firm of GCash, contributed 28 percent to Globe’s nine month net income before tax.

Three new submarine cable systems are also in the works to provide additional capacity and alternative routes to help maintain connectivity during cable disruptions or cable cut.