Globe said Monday it expects a mid-single digit growth in service revenues this year despite the macroeconomic headwinds.
“We have a guidance of revenue growth of mid-single digit in 2023. It is the same guidance that we had in 2022, despite the major macroeconomic headwinds we are facing this year. We likewise gave guidance of maintaining our 50 percent EBITDA margin, which we will deliver by following through on our cost management initiatives” said Globe chief finance officer Rizza Maniego-Eala.
The company booked a 4-percent rise in service revenues to a record P158 billion in 2022 from P152.3 billion in 2021, driven by mobile and corporate data services and increased revenue contribution of non-telco subsidiaries.
Globe’s revenues in the fourth quarter surpassed the P40-billion level for the first time in the company’s history.
The company also reported a 46-percent jump in net income to end the year at P34.6 billion from P23.7 billion in 2021.
Globe attributed the increase to the gains that the company recognized for the partial sale of its data center business and the execution of the first few tranches of the sale and leaseback of its tower assets.
The telecom unit of Ayala Group expects more proceeds from the tower sale and leaseback initiative this year, with the balance of the towers to be turned over progressively over the next few quarters.
Globe in August 2022 decided to sell more than 7,000 towers to MIESCOR Infrastructure Development Corp., Frontier Tower Associates Philippines and PhilTower Consortium Inc. to improve its balance sheet health and finance its capital expenditures. It has raised around P39.0 billion from the transactions.
Globe reduced its 2022 capital expenditure to $1.3 billion and said it aimed to further reduce this to $1 billion by 2024.
It said the optimization of capital spending and improvement in free cash flow would not be at the expense of service quality as the company would continue to deliver a world-class network and an industry-leading customer experience.
