MANILA, Aug.9 -- The board of Globe Telecom has approved the third quarterly distribution of cash dividend of PHP 22.75 for holders of its common shares.
The dividend payout comes as Globe has posted record highs in its revenues for the first half of this year.
“The third quarter cash dividend payment total is about PHP3 billion, an increase of 3 percent over last year’s distribution in line with the company’s commitment in creating shareholder value,” said Globe Chief Finance Officer Rizza Maniego-Eala in a statement.
The dividend will be paid to shareholders on record as of August 22, 2017 payable on September 6, 2017.
Globe has maintained its strong momentum as it posted all time highs in revenues and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortization) in the first six months of the year.
Revenues in the first half reached PHP62.9 billion, expanding 5 percent from a year earlier, driven by the demand for data-related products as customers continue to adapt to the digital lifestyle. EBITDA during the period hit a record high of PHP27.3 billion, up 6 percent from a year earlier.
Mobile revenues stood at PHP48.3 billion as of end-June 2017, up 5 percent year-on-year, led by the sustained solid growth in mobile data despite the reduction in the number of its mobile subscribers.
Globe Telecom’s mobile subscriber base reached 59.7 million for the first semester of the year, down 3 percent from the 61.3 million subscribers reported in the same period of 2016. The decline in the cumulative mobile subscriber base was due to the change in reporting of the company’s prepaid subscribers.
Beginning the first quarter of 2017, the company excluded in their reporting the prepaid subscribers who do not reload within 90 days of the second expiry period, versus the previous cut-off of 120 days.
Meanwhile, Globe home broadband business continued its solid growth year-on-year, delivering a total of PHP7.7 billion revenues as of end-June this year, up by 8 percent from the PHP7 billion recorded in the same period last year. This was mainly driven by the continued customer base expansion, which now reached a total of 1.2 million as of the first half of 2017, with fixed wireless growing by 22% year-on-year.
The gains in broadband and mobile data were complemented by the 3 percent growth in corporate data to PHP5.0 billion as of the first half of 2017, from the PHP4.9 billion posted in the same period of 2016 driven by the increase in demand for data connectivity, managed service solutions, and cloud-based services.
“We are happy with our achievements in the first half of the year, with record-breaking gross service revenues and EBITDA,” said Globe President and CEO Ernest L. Cu.
“This affirms our confidence in delivering consistent business growth that is sustainable moving forward, leveraging on our continued aggressive network upgrades, customer-focused products and service offerings, as well as our continued attention to cost management,” he added.
Globe spent around PHP27.5 billion in capital expenditures as of end-June of 2017 to support the growing subscriber base and its demand for data. Of the total capital expenditures spent this year, about 87 percent was for the data service needs of its customers. (PNA)
