Globe Telecom Inc. reported a 48 percent increase in net income to P26.5 billion in the first nine months this year versus same period last year while consolidated service revenues hit P118 billion, up three percent year-on-year.

Globe said the huge jump in net income was due to one-time gains from the sale of its tower assets while the slight increase in consolidated service revenues was attributed to rising data usage plus growth in its non-telco business.

The telco noted that it posted a one-time net gain of ₱8.4 billion on the partial sale of its data center business, plus ₱1.4 billion from the sale and leaseback of its tower assets.

Core net income, excluding the impact of non-recurring charges, and foreign exchange and mark-to-market charges, ended at ₱16.0 billion. Normalized core net income was also flat, year-on-year.

Overall, Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said, “We are pleased with the Globe Group’s performance amidst the challenging economic climate and rapid changes in our industry.”

"We believe that our decision to pivot and expand our growth opportunities through non-telco services has paved the way for us to remain relevant and competitive," Cu said.

Notably, Globe's total data revenues now account for 81 percent of its total consolidated service revenues, from 79 percent last year.

Mobile business achieved strong revenue growth at ₱80.6 billion, versus ₱78.4 billion in the first nine months the previous year.

This represents Globe’s second highest nine-month mobile revenue, bested only by pre-pandemic high in 2019.

The revenue improvement came mostly from pre-paid given Filipinos' rapid digital adoption.

Total mobile revenues comprised 68 percent of Globe's total service revenues, with its total mobile customer base expanding to 87.9 million, 5 percent higher than last year.

From a product view, mobile data revenues grew 8 percent to ₱62.5 billion in the first nine months of the year.

Mobile data traffic likewise jumped to 3,365 petabytes as of end-September of 2022, surpassing the 2,730 petabytes reported in the preceding year.

Mobile data now accounts for 78 percent of mobile revenues versus 74 percent last year.

Furthermore, mobile voice and mobile SMS revenues ended at ₱11.4 billion, lower year-on-year by 14 percent and ₱6.7 billion, lower by 7 percent.

With Globe’s increased fiber footprint, postpaid fiber subscribers grew 64 percent and revenues increased 108 percent year-on-year.

Despite the improvement in fiber revenues, the Home Broadband business slid further in the third quarter, bringing its total revenues for the first nine months of 2022 to only ₱20.5 billion from ₱22.4 billion a year earlier.

Total Home Broadband subscriber count now stands at 2.7 million, down 27 percent year-on-year.

Corporate Data soared to another record level revenues of ₱12.5 billion, 21 percent up from a year ago and significantly higher from pre-pandemic level (up 31 percent versus the first 9 months of 2019).

This was mainly due to the strong traction from information and communication technology (ICT) services which grew 96 percent year-on-year.

Globe attributed the growth of its ICT segment to increased demand for business application services, cloud services and data centers.

Significantly, Globe's non-telco revenues jumped to ₱2.8 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 101 percent.

Substantial revenue contributions from ECPay, Yondu, and Asticom led to this period’s outstanding performance.

Globe's total operating expenses, including subsidy, stood at ₱57.6 billion for the first nine months of 2022, or flat year-on-year.

The increase from almost all expense line items were offset by the declines from marketing, lease and services.

Overall, Globe's consolidated EBITDA rose 6 percent to ₱60.3 billion, with the topline increasing by 3 percent and flat total operating expenses (including subsidy).

This enabled overall EBITDA margin to increase to 51 percent from last year’s 50 percent. With higher EBITDA and lower non-operating expenses, which fully covered for the increase in depreciation charges.

Globe’s balance sheet remained healthy and gearing comfortably within bank covenants despite the increase in debt from ₱210.1 billion as of end-December 2021 to ₱248.4 billion this period.

Globe’s gross debt to equity is at 1.94x while gross debt to EBITDA is at 2.62x; Net debt to equity ratio is at 1.86x while net debt to EBITDA is 2.50x; and debt service coverage ratio is at 3.79x.

As for its capital expenditure (capex), Globe closed the first nine months of 2022 with ₱74.4 billion, up 14 percent, to bring better communications services to its over 91.0 million customers nationwide.

The bulk, 84 percent of the capex was allocated for data requirements - additional LTE upgrades, new 5G sites, more tower builds, and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) rollout, to enhance customers' data experience.

The telco deployed close to 1.4 million FTTH lines as of end-September of 2022, versus over one million lines from a year ago.

In addition, Globe built 1,064 new cell sites, upgraded over 10.6 thousand mobile sites to LTE, and installed 1,887 new 5G sites nationwide to address the growing connectivity needs of Filipinos.

Globe’s 5G outdoor coverage has now reached 97.1 percent of the National Capital Region and 87.7 percent of key cities in Visayas and Mindanao.