Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Let's pivot back and have a look at Southeast Asia, specifically the Philippines and the Changing Guard. They are the country's largest telco. Her market cap on your screens. This Globe share price down about is seventy eight percent. It's hardly been a good year, certainly for overall for markets. Just to put that into context.
Joining us now is Carl Raymond Cruz officially appointed the CEO at Globe at the company's annual stockholders meeting just in fact, which I believe just concluded a couple of minutes back. Good morning, and thanks for taking the time to speak with us. How is your first AGM?
Good morning? First of all, thank you for having me in this show. The first AGM went well. We had the seamless Annual Stockholders Meeting, so hopefully it bodes well for the future of Globe. What lies ahead for all of us?
All right now? What everyone is yes thinking? And I'm sure you've entertained the question as well, Carl in since the announcement, what are your initial priorities now for the company.
Well, I will spend a disproportionate amount of time listening to the organization engaging consumers and really trying to bring a sharper customer mindset. I think, coming from my years of experience in the FMCG industry and having worked in a number of markets which are slightly similar, some are probably more volatile than the Philippines, you know, there's a sense that the demand is really driven by a very
heavy consumer sector. So hopefully my training to obsess about what the consumer wants and act in it fast will do well for my new journey at Globe.
I'm sure your training with consumers will will pay off. But what are you hearing then in terms of the concerns of recession or the concerns about tariffs and the impact on inflation. How am i that you know potentially feed into the demand from consumers.
Well, obviously it has impacted consumer purchasing power. While I think the economy of the Philippines is going through coming back to normalcy where inflation is actually going down and GDP stable at about five six percent, you know, it is up to key players such as Globe to make sure that we actually accelerate consumer demand for Telco and
our products. The good thing about the Philippines, it's the fastest growing digital economy in Southeast Asia, and this boats well for US and the Philippines having, of course a very young population that are already online, boats well again for the future of Globe because our future customer base is now online and actually growing.
This is also coming against the backdrop though, of maturing core telco business. For Glow overall, what is that going to mean in terms of the strategy You're going to deploy to fire revenues profits correct.
So you know, in my first ninety days of onboarding, I looked at what made Globe successful and one of the key success factors of the organization, besides of course having a great engaged set of employees and having a great culture, is the fact that everyone in the organization is obsessed with the customers. So moving forward, while a lot of people think that the industry is mature, opportunities actually abound. I'll give you one example. In the Philippines, site density is actually.
Not that good.
I think we have about close to five thousand users per site. When you compare that to Thai Land we have the population, they're only at about one thousand, five hundred to two thousand users at site level. While people will say it's a mature market. Yes it is, but opportunities abound in terms of future revenue growth.
Right and Carl Well, speaking of since you brought up revenue growth, I mean, I think you guys cleared in the last calendar. I'm just trying to rack my brain. I think it was one hundred eighty billion that's local currency in revenues last year. The last few years have seen low to mid single digit revenue growth. Are you happy with that rate of growth?
You're absolutely correct, David. So it's about low to single digit. The guidance will remain to be low to single digit at this point in time while we repivot in terms of looking at how we are positioned in the mobile segment and getting a bit more aggressive in the broadband segment and also enterprise or B to B. That guidance as of now remains, but you know, moving forward, ambition is to actually be the largest, most profitable, and most
ad marketelco operator in the Philippines. And for us to attain that, we need to get to a stronger position in both the fiber market and as well B to B.
What kind of topics are we talking for you to be able to put yourself in a position to realize those objectives.
So our capecks are still would still be at a healthy level. We're clearing about thirty to thirty four percent in terms of CAPEX productivity, but at the same time, bulk of that will be put on and spent on obviously data. This, as I said, the Philippines is the fastest growing digital economy in Southeast Asia, in the subregion, and therefore, to my mind, very clearly, based on what I've seen so far, Globe is best positioned to actually ensure that we benefit from that uptick.
Of course we've seen we're of course seeing a lot of market volatility in the meantime. Markets are looking forward as well to the g Cash IPO, that timeline and what we can potentially expect in terms of size. What more can you tell us about this.
Well, you know, everyone, it's all hands on deck to actually get g Cash to be a pushbottom ready for an IPO. Tentative timing would be anywhere between the last quarter of the year or the first half of next year, so all hands are in deck to make sure that it's going to be the most successful offering in the Philippine market and Obviously, from what you guys know, the valuation the last time it is valued is a five
billion US dollars. We do expect, based on certain assumptions that hopefully could be better than that.
How much better are we looking at here?
Well, I'm not in a position, but based on what you know, the analysts are saying it could definitely be higher. I just don't want to moment on a figure right now, David.
Right, I think your I think Ernest your predecessor mentioned, I think we spoke to him a few weeks A guy said he was happy with at least eight. But I realize, and you know, I acknowledge that there are lots of moving parts, including by the way, I think your separate conversations that you guys are having with the
exchange and the minimum float and what have you. Once it's listed, and let's say, let's just for conversation's sake, it's listed before the end of the year, to your point early next year, what role will you play specifically and Globe play in terms of running that specific business.
So Globe will remain to be the largest shareholder of mintor g cash, And of course we have we have to maintain an arms length relationship with Gkash because they also serve, for example, other players in the industry. So I will be playing a coordinating role with Ernest and the team led by Martha to make sure that we continue to lead the digital and financially inclusion in the Philippines. So in exciting times ahead both for Cortel, Quod, Globe and as well for Findech A G Cash.
David and April, Yeah, and thank you for taking the time to come and share some of your upcoming plans. Congratulations on a successful first AGM. Really going to keep a close watch on how you're going to steer the business going forward. Thanks so much again, Cale, Raymond Cruz, CEO of Globe Telecom