By EMMIE V. ABADILLA
After managing its operational costs and introducing more value offers to subscribers, Globe Telecom Inc. netted P3.5 billion earnings in the first quarter of 2006, up 19 percent from first quarter last year, despite the tripling of provisions for income tax year-on-year to P1.5 billion.
Globe said its wireless subscriber base stood at 13.2 million as of end-March, up 6.5 percent from 12.4 million at end-2005 and 2 percent higher than the year before.
The company’s effective income tax rate increased from 15 percent to 31 percent with higher corporate tax rates and the expiry of the Globe’s tax holiday in March 2005.
If the impact from mark-to-market and foreign exchange changes were to be excluded, the company’s 1st quarter net income would be up 40 percent year-on-year and 19 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Globe’s net service revenues went up 5 per cent at P14.2 billion versus the same period last year, but registered lower by 3 percent quarter-on-quarter with 4th quarter 2005 revenues reflecting peak seasonal demand.
Quarterly Earnings Before Income Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) and EBIT reached historic high points, growing by 23 percent and 39 percent respectively from 1st quarter 2005 levels. EBITDA margins improved to 68 percent from 59 percent in the 1st quarter 2005 and 64 percent in the 4th quarter 2005.
Globe improved its earnings by providing value propositions customized to specific customer segments.
Last February, the company made Globe Text NonStop (under the banner offering Globe UNLIMITXT) a permanent feature to cater to the needs of heavy SMS users.
In March, the carrier extended its per-second offering for local calls into the IDD arena via Globe Tipid IDD kada-segundo, which allows per-second charging of US{{MB:DR(ARTICLE:CONTENT):MB}}.003 to 12 select countries and US{{MB:DR(ARTICLE:CONTENT):MB}}.007 for other destinations.
Globe also made available its Tipid IDD rates of P7.50 per minute call to US and Canada for offpeak hours, and P7.50 per minute for all calls to Hong Kong CSL mobile numbers.
Its Kababayan Program, offered reduced rates to all Globe and TM subscribers making calls to Saudi Arabia and Japan and discounted SMS and voice calls to SingTel Mobile of Singapore were offered. On April 16, 2006, Globe introduced another tariff breakthrough, the P0.90/ text to all networks, the lowest inter-network SMS rate in the market today.
This array of value offerings have helped strengthen Globe’s competitiveness, and provide impetus to subscriber growth. Globe’s total wireless subscriber base reached 13.2 million at the end of 1 st Quarter 2006, 6% higher than the previous quarter’s 12.4 million and 2% better than last year’s 12.9 million.
Net additions of about 0.8 million SIMs reflect a significant turnaround from the previous quarter’s net disconnections of about 6,000.
On the wireline front, Innove Communications, Inc. registered a 2% yearon-year growth in service revenues to P1.6 billion by end-March, spurred by growth in the consumer broadband and corporate data businesses.
This improvement in revenues were also underpinned by a roster of promotions such as free NDD calls from Globelines postpaid subscribers to any Globelines phone, lower IDD rates, the WorldPass Prepaid service that offered reduced internet browsing rates, and various bundled voice and unlimited dial-up and broadband internet services for Globelines subscribers.
"We are delighted by the market’s response to our initiatives and are encouraged by the results of the first quarter," according to Gerardo C. Ablaza, Jr., President and CEO of Globe said.
"While we expect competition to remain intense in the succeeding quarters, we will stay on course and strive to further strengthen our market position," he concluded.(EVA)
http://www.mb.com.ph/BSNS2006051664089.html
No comments:
Post a Comment