Globe net income down 10%

MANILA, Philippines - Core net income and net earnings of Globe Telecom Inc. declined 10 percent in the first semester from a year ago.

In a report to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, the Ayala-led telco said core net income, which excludes the impact of non-recurring charges, foreign exchange gains and mark-to-market charges, reached P8 billion in the fist half, down 10 percent from P8.8 billion in the same period last year.

Globe’s net income also slid 10 percent to P8.1 billion in the first-half from P9 billion in the same period a year ago.

Globe attributed the lower net income result to higher interest expense and depreciation expenses, along with Globe’s share in equity losses and spectrum amortization related to its acquisition of half of the telco assets of San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

Excluding the impact of the SMC transaction, Globe’s normalized net income reached P8.6 billion in the January to June period, four percent lower from a year ago.

Despite the lower core net income and net profit result, Globe’s consolidated service revenue reached a fresh peak at P62.9 billion in the first semester, up five percent from the P59.9 billion in the previous year, driven by the growth in mobile, home broadband and corporate data segments.

Mobile service revenues rose five percent to P48.3 billion in the first-half from P45.9 billion in the same period last year amid solid growth in mobile data.

As of end-June, Globe had 59.7 million mobile subscribers, three percent lower than the 61.3 million in the same period a year ago as it changed the basis for reporting subscribers.

Since the first quarter of the year, Globe no longer counts prepaid subscribers who do not reload within 90 days of the second expiry period. The previous cut-off was 120 days.

Home broadband revenue also grew eight percent to P7.7 billion in the January to June period from P7.1 billion in the same period a year ago, while corporate data revenue went up three percent to P5 billion in the first six months from P4.9 billion in the previous year.