Globe on Friday handed over an additional 132 towers, mostly from the Visayas and Mindanao, to Phil-Tower Consortium Inc. (PhilTower), for about P2 billion.
With the transaction, a total 710 towers of 1,350 tower assets were successfully sold to the consortium. The sale comes with a commitment to build 750 more towers across the Visayas and Mindanao.
Cumulatively, Globe has sold 44 percent or a total of 3,120 towers of the 7,059 acquired by the tower companies, raising P40.5 billion to date.
Subsequent hand overs will happen as and when closing conditions are met. Globe will make relevant announcements in accordance with the applicable regulatory and disclosure rules as and when appropriate, the telco said.
“We have transferred more than half of the towers bought by PhilTower. As we shift our focus to strengthening our free cash flow position, this initiative continues to provide us additional financial and operational flexibility, thereby protecting our market leadership and allowing adequate elbow room to venture into exciting digital businesses,” said Rizza Eala, Globe chief finance officer.
Globe president and chief executive officer Ernest L. Cu, said, “Our partnership with PhilTower will help us achieve our network expansion goals in Visayas and Mindanao to reach the unserved and the underserved. In times like these, reliable digital services greatly spell a difference in stimulating economic growth and getting practical innovations within reach in these key regions.”
Devid Gubiani, PhilTower president, said of this milestone, “In rapid succession from our initial February closing, PhilTower is pleased to transact another 132 sites with Globe. This brings our overall portfolio to over 1,000 sites nationwide. We look forward to closing the remaining 640 sites.”
“Our partnership with Globe has been a strong one as the Philtower team managed operationally end to end those sites from day 1, thereby allowing Globe to focus on their operational excellence,” he added.
