Globe Telecom Inc. on Friday said the cessation of Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO) in the country should not significantly impact its revenue stream.
“We have a certain percentage of our revenue on the B2B side of the business that is actually getting revenue from the POGOs. It’s not significant. At the end of the day we support the directive of the President to actually exit POGOs in the country,” Darius Delgado, vice president and head of Globe’s Consumer Mobile Business, said.
During his 3rd state of the nation address, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., directed the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to stop all POGO operations in the country by the end of the year.
Ernest Cu, Globe president and chief executive, concurred, noting that an earlier POGO exodus reduced revenue flow from the sector and that their closure has “minimal impact to Globe at this stage.”
Globe earlier reported net income of P14.5 billion in the first half this year, a one-percent increase from the year-ago period.
Excluding a one-time gain from tower sales, normalized net income surged 19 percent to P11.9 billion compared to the same period last year.
Excluding non-recurring items, foreign exchange fluctuations, and mark-to-market adjustments, Globe’s core net income went up 18 percent to P11.7 billion. This would have been even higher at 21 percent growth had the ECPay transaction been separated from Globe’s year-ago financial results.
Globe reported P82.2 billion in consolidated gross service revenue during the period, up 2 percent from a year ago despite the decline in home broadband and non-telco services.
Mobile revenue went up 7 percent while corporate data revenue showed an 8 percent improvement from a year earlier that generated P9.8 billion.
Globe’s mobile business has shown resilient growth with all-time high revenue of P58.4 billion compared to P54.8 billion in the same period last year.
In contrast, home broadband revenue dropped 6 percent year-on-year from P12.8 billion to P12.1 billion at end-June this year due to lower fixed wireless service revenue.
