Globe earns P1.3B from tower sale

GLOBE Telecom on Wednesday closed a deal with PhilTower Consortium Inc. for the sale of an additional 90 towers, valued at about P1.3 billion.

This brought the total number of transferred towers to 1,000, worth an aggregate of P13.6 billion, out of a total of 1,350 towers to be sold to PhilTower in a deal estimated to amount to P20 billion.

Last month, Globe transferred 282 out of the 447 towers to be acquired by Unity Digital Infrastructure (Unity), a partnership between Aboitiz InfraCapital (AIC) and Partners Group.

Globe has also transferred a total of 1,348 towers to Miescor Infrastructure Development Corp.

In August 2022, Globe agreed to sell then lease back all its 5,709 telecommunications towers and relative passive infrastructure in two deals amounting to P71 billion.

Of the total, 2,180 towers will be sold to MIDC for P26 billion, while the remaining 3,529 towers will be sold to Frontier Tower Associates Philippines Inc. for P45 billion.

The disposal of its telecom towers is expected to allow Globe to efficiently raise capital, redeploy capital from passive infrastructure to active equipment, improve its balance sheet health, and leverage the expertise of tower companies.

The telco earlier reported a net income of P24.6 billion last year, down 29 percent from P34.60 billion in 2022.

Excluding the impact of one-time gains, normalized net income would have been P19.1 billion, down by 4 percent from 2022.

Consolidated service revenues grew 3 percent to P162.3 billion from P158 billion the previous year on the outstanding performance of the mobile and corporate data businesses, complemented by the robust growth of its non-telco services.

Globe shares fell by P4.00, or 0.23 percent, to P1,720 apiece on Wednesday.