AYALA-led Globe Telecom Inc. is planning to raise its capital expenditures (capex) from $750 million to $800 million in 2017 to invest more in its data expansion projects as short message service (SMS) weakens, Globe President and Chief Executive Officer Ernest Cu said.
Cu said that on top of the company’s $250 million investment in Southeast-US underwater cable system, which was launched recently, Globe is looking at expanding its capex to $800 million more this 2017.
“Our capex for the year is $750 million. We will formalize our capex in the third quarter. But if you look at our earnings report, we also did our earnings call, I think we are already tracking more than $500 million spending in the first six months of the year. So there’s really possibility of raising the capex for this year,” the company executive told reporters over the weekend on the sidelines of an event in Taguig City.
Cu said telco companies in the country were one of the highest in terms of capex or revenue ratios and investments, noting the company will be closed to 34 percent. “We will invest our 34 percent of revenues back to our network which is really high for this year,” he said.
Globe’s capex will be focused on developing and improving its data-related projects, such as deployment of its LTE mobile and LTE @Home, as well as to increase its network capacities and coverage of fixed-line data.
“Everything we do right now is geared towards data. That’s the growing part. As you know, SMS is declining,” Cu said.
Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/globe-raise-capex-800m-2017/344347/