Philippines' Globe May Borrow Up To $150 Million For 2005 Capex

MANILA -(Dow Jones)- Globe Telecom Inc. (GLO.PH), the Philippines' second-largest telecommunications company, plans to borrow as much as $150 million to partly fund its capital expenditure in 2005.

"Our capital expenditure for next year is about $350 million...this would go to network rollout," Globe chief finance officer Delfin Gonzalez said Tuesday.

Capital spending for next year, which is the same level as that for 2004, will involve the installation of 1,000 cellular sites to expand Globe's coverage.

The company plans to have around 3,600 cellular sites in operation by the end of this year, which will allow it to handle up to 16 million calls simultaneously.

Gonzalez said a chunk of capital expenditure for 2005 will be financed with internal funds.

"We are still trying to finalize the numbers but most likely we would have to source $100 million to $150 million from external funding, and the rest would come from internally generated cash," he said.

Steady growth in Globe's subscriber base helped the company's first-half net profit grow 58% on year to PHP6.9 billion, as revenue rose 16% to PHP27.62 billion.

Globe had 10.5 million subscribers as of June.

-By Cris Larano, Dow Jones Newswires; 632-885-0288; cris.larano@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 19th October 2004