Philippine mobile telephone operator GlobeTel, in which Singapore Telecom is a joint venture partner with local conglomerate the Ayala Corp, has turned in a much healthier bottom line than analysts had predicted for the first nine months of the year. Net profit was up 130% year-on-year to 651m pesos ($17m) on revenue that rose 75% to 6.5bn pesos ($171m). The company’s shares rose 7.3% on the Manila Stock Exchange after the results were published.
Although primarily a mobile operator, GlobeTel also has to provide a fixed-line service in Manila as part of its license agreement. Company president Gerardo Ablaza said the profit leap was due to a near 300% jump in subscribers to 680,000, the bulk of them cell phone users. This makes GlobeTel the country’s second largest mobile operator after Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) subsidiary Smart Communications.
Content from our partners
