GlobeTel borrows P5B from RCBC

Globe Telecom has signed a P5-billion loan agreement with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) to fund its capital expenditures for 2012. The seven-year, P5-billion fixed-rate term loan facility with RCBC was the second loan agreement signed by Globe this year. Taking advantage of the low interest environment to replace some loans with cheaper debt, Globe closed a seven-year, P7-billion loan with another local bank last February. This loan was to pre-pay debts and fund a portion of capital expenditures for 2011. Recently, Globe announced it would invest $790-million to undertake a massive network modernization and IT transformation program over the next five years to boost capacity, improve network quality and meet the growing demand for bandwidth-heavy services such as broadband and mobile data. Of this amount, $640-million will be spent in 2012 and 2013. As of end-September 2011, Globe had a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The company posted record-high revenue of P49.987-billion, with net income hitting P7.994 billion.