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Introduction & Market Context
Globe Telecom (PSE:GLO) presented its third quarter and nine-month 2025 results on November 11, highlighting sequential revenue growth despite year-over-year profit challenges. The company’s stock has been under pressure, closing at PHP 1,620 following the earnings announcement, down 1.17% as investors responded to an earnings per share miss of 22.77% compared to market expectations.
The Philippine telecom provider emphasized its fastest sequential revenue growth in 13 quarters, though this positive framing contrasts with the actual revenue shortfall of PHP 44.41 billion against forecasts of PHP 45.16 billion for Q3. Globe’s presentation focused on growth drivers including mobile data, fiber broadband, and its fintech arm GCash, while working to optimize capital expenditures.
Quarterly Performance Highlights
Globe reported consolidated gross service revenues of PHP 124.0 billion for Q3 2025, representing a 3% year-over-year increase. EBITDA reached PHP 64.9 billion, also up 3% year-over-year, maintaining a healthy margin of 52.8%. However, core net income for the first nine months declined 15% year-over-year to PHP 15.5 billion, reflecting ongoing profitability challenges.
As shown in the following financial performance summary:
The company announced a fourth quarter cash dividend of PHP 25 per share with a payment date of December 5, 2025, and a record date of November 20, 2025. This maintains Globe’s commitment to shareholder returns despite the earnings pressure.
A more detailed breakdown of the financial performance reveals the factors impacting EBITDA on both a year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis:
Segment Performance
Mobile business remains Globe’s largest revenue contributor, with mobile data accounting for 86% of the segment’s revenue. Total mobile revenues for the first nine months of 2025 reached PHP 86.2 billion, down 2% year-over-year, though mobile data revenue grew 2% year-over-year to PHP 74.0 billion, reaching an all-time high according to the company.
The mobile segment breakdown shows the dominant position of data services:
Globe’s mobile subscriber base grew to 63.1 million, up 5% year-over-year, with 37.8 million mobile data users. The company highlighted improvements in 5G metrics, with 5G average traffic per user up 45% month-over-month and 5G mobile traffic up 85% month-over-month compared to December 2024. Notably, 5G ARPU is 9% higher than non-5G, indicating potential for revenue growth as adoption increases.
In the broadband segment, fiber services have become the dominant revenue source, contributing 91% of the total PHP 17.8 billion in broadband revenues for the first nine months. While overall broadband revenues remained flat year-over-year, fiber revenues grew 5%, supported by a 44% increase in fiber subscribers. The company is transitioning away from fixed wireless services, which saw a 26% decline in subscribers and 35% drop in revenues.
Corporate data business showed positive momentum with revenues of PHP 15.0 billion for the first nine months, up 3% year-over-year. The segment demonstrated sequential improvement with core services up 11% quarter-over-quarter and ICT-related services up 14% quarter-over-quarter.
Strategic Initiatives
Globe’s fintech arm, Mynt (GCash), has become an increasingly important contributor to the company’s bottom line, accounting for 25% of Globe’s nine-month net income before tax. GCash continues to expand its user base and service offerings, with the platform now used by approximately 80% of Filipinos.
The presentation highlighted GCash’s user demographics and reach:
GCash is scaling its financial services beyond payments, with significant growth in lending, investment products, and insurance. Loan disbursements reached PHP 323 billion lifetime-to-date, up 73% year-over-year, while the platform has attracted 15.3 million GSave users and 8.6 million GFunds users. Insurance policies sold through GCash reached 80.2 million lifetime-to-date, growing 126% year-over-year.
Globe is also advancing its data center business through STT GDC Philippines, with STT Fairview 1 now partially operational and STT Cavite 2 expected to be operational by year-end. The current capacity utilization stands at 81%, indicating strong demand for data center services in the Philippines.
Financial Position & Capital Expenditures
Globe has significantly reduced its capital expenditures, with 9M25 CAPEX at PHP 31.4 billion, down 23% year-over-year. The CAPEX-to-revenue ratio stood at 26%, with 89% of spending directed toward data-related infrastructure. Despite the reduced spending, the company reported building 1,375 new cell sites, upgrading 8,699 mobile sites, installing 877 5G sites, and deploying 60,193 FTTH lines.
The EBITDA performance analysis shows the various factors affecting profitability:
The company’s financial position remains stable with cash of PHP 27.7 billion as of 9M25, up from PHP 21.4 billion at the end of 2024. Gross debt stood at PHP 253.5 billion, with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.40x, slightly improved from 2.43x at the end of 2024.
Forward Outlook
Globe maintained its full-year 2025 guidance, projecting low to mid-single digit percentage revenue growth with an EBITDA margin of approximately 50%. The company expects cash CAPEX to remain below USD 1.0 billion and anticipates positive free cash flow by the end of 2025.
The company also addressed the potential impact of the Konektadong Pinoy Act, suggesting that despite constitutional concerns, the legislation could create opportunities in infrastructure monetization, streamlined capacity rollout, and improved nationwide coverage.
Globe’s strategic focus remains on enhancing network experience, expanding digital services, and maintaining financial discipline as it navigates competitive pressures in the Philippine telecommunications market. However, investors will be watching closely to see if the company can reverse the trend of year-over-year profit declines and meet its revenue growth targets for the remainder of 2025.
Full presentation:
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