Globe Telecom Announces 4Q23 Quarter and Full Year 2023 Results

The 4Q 2023 Financial Briefing by Globe Telecom took place on February 7, 2024, where they discussed their financial and operating performance for the full-year results of 2023.

The Globe Group ended the year 2023 with a remarkable achievement, reaching an all-time high consolidated service revenues of ଑162.3 billion. This surpassed the previous year's record level of ଑158.0 by an impressive 3%. The significant contributions from mobile, corporate data, and non-telco services were a major factor in the outstanding performance. The company's data-centric offerings have greatly contributed to Globe's total data revenues, which now account for 83% of their total consolidated service revenues. This reflects the growing importance of the digital lifestyle in the lives of Filipinos. The company's non-telco revenues experienced a significant 18% yearly growth, now accounting for 3% of total consolidated service revenues, up from 2.6% last year. Despite the deconsolidation of ECPay from Globe's books due to the sale of its stake to Mynt in September 2023, this result was still achieved. The prior period can be adjusted to account for the deconsolidation of ECPay2. In doing so, Globe's total gross service revenues would have shown a growth of 3% both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.

The mobile business had a strong performance, reaching a historic high of 112.4 billion, surpassing the previous record level of 107.5 billion reported in 2022. The impressive 5% year-on-year improvement can be attributed to the growing demand for affordable mobile devices and the increasing usage of high-bandwidth online video services and social media content on smartphones. In 2023, the total mobile customer base reached 57.0 million, accounting for 69% of the total service revenues.

Mobile data revenues reached a peak of ଑90.9 billion for the full year of 2023, showing a strong growth of 9% compared to last year's high of ଑83.8 billion. The mobile data traffic reached an impressive 5,960 petabytes by the end of December 2023, surpassing the 4,658 petabytes reported the previous year. Mobile data now makes up 81% of total mobile revenues, up from 78% last year. Mobile voice and mobile SMS revenues, however, concluded the year 2023 at ଑13.5 billion and ଑8.0 billion, showing a decrease of 9% and 10% compared to the previous year.

Globe's information and communication technology (ICT) solutions and services have been steadily growing, with an annual increase of 14%. The company's corporate data revenues reached an impressive ₱18.3 billion, a 7% improvement compared to last year, marking the highest in the company's history. Globe's impressive growth is a clear indication of their dedication to spearheading the digital revolution in businesses nationwide.

On the other hand, the Home Broadband business experienced a 7% decline in revenues compared to the impressive 27.1 billion from 2022. Although postpaid fiber's encouraging growth provided some relief, a decline in fixed wireless was the main cause of this decline. The year saw a 1% increase in postpaid fiber subscribers and a significant 14% growth in revenues. Additionally, revenues and operating metrics for fixed wireless access continued to stabilize. The quarterly decline in fixed wireless subscribers is slowing down, in line with the Company's guidance. It is anticipated that the downward pressure from this business will ease in 2024.

The current subscriber count for Total Home Broadband is 1.8 million (after SIM registration), which reflects a 32% decrease compared to the previous year. The data traffic for HPW has also declined significantly, reaching only 289 petabytes by the end of December 2023, compared to 450 petabytes a year ago.

Furthermore, the Globe Group has been consistently providing innovative solutions to address the common challenges faced by Filipinos. With a wide range of products and services in various sectors such as financial technology, virtual healthcare, e-commerce, business outsourcing, edutech, as well as media and entertainment, Globe's non-telco revenues increased to 4.9 billion in 2023, compared to ଑4.2 billion the previous year.

Additionally, the total operating expenses, including subsidies, reached 80.9 billion for the full year of 2023, reflecting a 3% increase compared to the previous year. 2023 continues to present challenges as macroeconomic and external factors persistently drive up expenses across the board. The company was able to partially offset these increases through savings from marketing and subsidies, as well as cost management initiatives that resulted in reduced staff costs.

The consolidated EBITDA reached a new high of ଑81.4 billion, showing a 3% increase compared to 2022. This growth was driven by a 3% expansion in the topline, which helped offset the rise in operating expenses (including subsidies). The overall EBITDA margin remained stable at around 50%, which is consistent with the Company's full-year guidance.

Despite the well-written explanation, a 4% increase in depreciation charges and non-operating charges for this year offset the expansion of EBITDA during this period. As a result, there was a significant 29% decline in net income, dropping from ଑34.6 billion to only 24.6 billion. The total non-operating income reported in 2022 was ଑10.7 billion, which included a one-time net gain of 8.5 billion (post-tax) from the partial sale of Globe's data center business. The normalized net income, excluding one-time gains, would have been ଑19.1 billion, reflecting a 4% decrease compared to the previous year.

In addition to boosting the Globe Group's profits, Mynt's growth has been instrumental in expanding GCash's reach worldwide, providing Filipinos both at home and abroad with a wide range of digital financial tools and services.