MANILA, The Philippines—Ayala-owned Globe Telecom posted strong growth during the first quarter of 2002, reporting a 33-percent increase in net income to 1.421 billion Philippine pesos (US$28.4 million) compared with a year ago.
The company reported that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the first quarter of 2002 reached 5.3 billion pesos (US$106 million) from 3 billion pesos (US$60 million) recorded in the same period last year. EBITDA margin improved to 56 percent compared with 50 percent in the same period last year.
Globe, a partnership between Ayala, Singapore Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom, supported the continued growth of its subscriber base with additional infrastructure investments. The company added that it spent a total of 5.2 billion pesos (US$104 million) in capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2002, 70 percent of which was allocated to its wireless business.
Globe last year reported a 4.31 billion pesos (US$86.1 million) net income as against 1.55 billion pesos (US$31 million) in 2000.
