Globe Telecom, Inc. (GLO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

April 21, 2020

Philippine Stock Exchange PH Communication Services shareholder_meeting 49 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Jose Mari Fajardo

executive
#1

Before we start, we would like to share with you 2 videos. The first is our #SafeAtHome video entitled, [Foreign Language], and the second is [Foreign Language], performed by our very own Globe Voices@Work. Thank you. [Presentation]

Jose Mari Fajardo

executive
#2

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Globe Telecom's 2020 Annual Stockholders Meeting. Let us start the proceedings with the Philippine National Anthem. [Presentation]

Jose Mari Fajardo

executive
#3

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the live webcast of Globe Telecom's 2020 Annual Stockholders Meeting. We welcome our Chairman, Mr. Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#4

Thank you very much, and welcome to all the stockholders. The meeting will now come to order. For the first time in our history, because of the current health crisis, we're holding this meeting in a virtual format. Thank you for joining us on this occasion. And on behalf of the Board, I welcome you, fellow stockholders, to the live webcast of these proceedings. We also thank our shareholders who are participating in this meeting by remote communication through our voting in absentia system or through the appointment of Chair as proxy. The members of the Board, and I believe they will come on screen, our President and CEO and other officers are in remote attendance at this meeting. Mr. Secretary, have the stockholders of the company been duly notified of the meeting?

Solomon Hermosura

executive
#5

Mr. Chairman, yes, our stockholders have been duly notified of this meeting. On March 24, 2020, we sent the notice of the date, time, place and agenda of this meeting to stockholders of record as of March 6, 2020, in 3 ways: first, by e-mail to all stockholders who given us their e-mail addresses; second, by posting on our company's website; and third, by disclosure in the Philippine Stock Exchange. In addition, the notice was published on March 24, 2020, in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Business World. Accordingly, Mr. Chairman, our stockholders have been duly notified of this meeting in accordance with our bylaws and applicable rules, including our internal guidelines on remote communication and voting in absentia under extraordinary circumstances, which are embodied in our Definitive Information Statement that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#6

Mr. Secretary, do we have a quorum at this meeting?

Solomon Hermosura

executive
#7

Yes, we have a quorum, Mr. Chairman. Shareholders owning 276,015,293 or 88.54% of the outstanding 311,723,428 shares of the corporation are present in this meeting. Therefore, we have a quorum and this meeting may proceed. Mr. Chairman, we will reflect in the minutes the breakdown of the stockholders present in terms of their mode of attendance and the percentage of the outstanding shares that they own as well as the number of those joining us in the live webcast of the meeting.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#8

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Though we're holding this meeting in a virtual format because of the government regulations that prevent us from in-person meetings for our safety and health, we have strived to provide our shareholders the opportunity to participate in this meeting to the same extent possible as an in-person meeting. Mr. Secretary, will you please share the rules of conduct and voting procedures of this meeting?

Solomon Hermosura

executive
#9

Yes. Mr. Chairman, the rules and procedures are set forth in the Definitive Information Statement and in the explanation of agenda items, which is part of the notice of this meeting. But please allow me to highlight the following points for our stockholders who are joining us through our live webcast. Number one is stockholders who registered under the voting in absentia and shareholder system or who notified the company by e-mail to [email protected] by April 14, 2020, of their intention to participate in this meeting by remote communication may send their questions or comments to the same e-mail address. Number two, Mr. Jose Mari Fajardo, our Director for Investor Relations, will read the questions or comments received before 9:30 a.m. during the Q&A period, which will take place after other matters under Item 8 of the agenda. Management will reply to questions and comments not taken up during the meeting by e-mail. Number three, as indicated in the ballot for the voting of shareholders, there are 5 resolutions proposed for adoption in this meeting. Each proposed resolution will be shown on the screen as the same is being taken up. Stockholders -- and lastly, number five (sic) [ four ], stockholders could cast their votes on these proposed resolutions and in the election of directors beginning March 27, 2020, through our voting in absentia and shareholder system. The polls will remain open until the end of this meeting for stockholders who had successfully registered to cast their votes electronically using our voting in absentia and shareholder system. We have tabulated the votes cast as of April 14, 2020, after the proxy validation process and deadline for registration for participation in this meeting through voting in absentia or remote communications. Those votes are from stockholders owning 276,000 -- 276,015,147 voting shares, representing 94.62% of the total outstanding voting shares. I will be referring to the results of this preliminary tabulation when I report the voting results throughout this meeting. The results of the final tabulation of votes will be reflected in the minutes of this meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#10

Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. The next order of business is the approval of the minutes of the Annual Stockholders Meeting held April 23, back in 2019. An electronic copy is available on the website of the corporation. I'll now ask our Secretary to present the proposed resolution on this item and the results of the voting on the resolution itself.

Solomon Hermosura

executive
#11

Mr. Chairman, management is proposing resolution number S-01-2020 for the approval of the minutes of the annual meeting on April 23, 2019. The resolution is on the screen. On the voting results, I'm pleased to report, Mr. Chairman, that shareholders owning 276,015,147 shares or 99.99% of the shares represented in this meeting have voted in favor of resolution number S-01-2020. Therefore, the resolution has been approved.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#12

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. We now move on to the next item in the agenda, which is the annual report, consisting of the message from the Chairman, followed by the message from the President and Chief Executive Officer. We will now be showing my prerecorded video message, followed by the opening remarks and prerecorded audio message with visual presentation from the President and CEO, Mr. Ernest Cu. Thank you. To our fellow shareholders, members of the Board of Directors and friends, good morning, and welcome to Globe Telecom's Annual Stockholders Meeting. This year, Globe achieved an important milestone as the company launched the Globe At Home Air Fiber 5G postpaid plans. This made the Philippines the first Southeast Asian country to experience the fifth-generation 5G fixed wireless broadband. Over the years, our company has been at the forefront of enabling digital inclusion and empowering Filipinos with the power of connectivity. Today, we cater to over 94.2 million mobile customers. We also serve over 2 million home broadband customers, a notable 25% increase compared to the year 2018. At Globe, the belief is that we grow when our customers further enhance their digital lifestyle, the economy flourishes through digital transformation and the natural ecosystem is nurtured in the process. With the ability to contribute towards a digitally enabled economy, our mission is to revitalize businesses and empower customers with enhanced digital capabilities. Despite the country's dampened economic growth in the global and domestic front, Globe had a record performance with a 12% growth in service revenues year-on-year. In line with past year trends, revenue growth has been predominantly data-driven. Total data revenues accounted for 71% of total service revenues compared to 61% reported last year. We've also been able to consistently increase our customer base. We witnessed a 27% rise in customer base this year compared to 2018. Conscious of our fiduciary duty to generate sustained value for our shareholders, we also paid out PHP 12.1 billion in common share dividends, which is similar to what we paid out in the previous year. This represents about 65% of 2018 core net income, in line with our new dividend policy of 60% to 75% of prior year's core net income. This also translates to a 4.8% dividend yield, which is more competitive than other Philippine-listed companies. It is noteworthy that we've been able to showcase this performance with the looming entry of a third player. This reaffirms my belief that with the evolving market dynamic, strategic innovation is critical to reaffirm our reputation as a nimble service provider committed to bringing world-class services to our customers. In our quest to enhance customer experience and build the Philippines' digital economy, we made substantial capital investments this year. We spent PHP 51 billion, which represents 34% of gross service revenues and 67% of full year EBITDA. We also forged more partnerships to anchor infrastructure development at a larger scale. In our endeavor to digitally transform businesses, we acquired a 77% equity interest in ECPay, Inc. whose platform will enable small business owners to offer more products and services. This move will also future-proof Globe's distribution network, bringing the company a step closer to its vision of a digitally enabled Philippines. Additionally, our GCash partnership with CIMB Philippines reached a milestone of 1 million GSave accounts opened after only 8 months from launch. Moreover, together with other operators, we entered into consortium and selected Syniverse as the mobile number portability service provider. We became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, committing to implement universal sustainability principles and contributed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Our focus areas in this vision include education, environmental conservation, digital inclusion and development. We rolled out various programs to realize our vision. We also expanded the reach of DTP via the National Summit on Digital Citizenship and Responsibility, NSDCR, in partnership with the Department of Education last September. Over 400 curriculum experts on values education and ICT from DepEd were in attendance and helped them become responsible online citizens. We also encouraged social innovators using ICT through the regional Future Makers program. In line with Globe's commitment to holistic value creation also, we have made considerable progress in our environmental stewardship programs. This year, we rolled out our marine protection program for Boracay and Siargao Islands aimed towards biodiversity conservation. In recognition of the material risks and opportunities climate change presents, we have also devised a dedicated climate strategy. Our strategy focuses on building the resilience of our value chain to extreme weather events and ensuring protection of the Globe network in times of disaster. While focusing on climate adaptation, our strategy also contributes towards climate change mitigation through fostering an organizational culture of resource conservation and actively taking part in reforestation activities. Globe is also committed to resource usage, optimization and waste minimization with a focus on effective e-waste management. The strong performance we witnessed this year serves as a testament of our integrated approach to value creation and our commitment to adopting a holistic approach to risk management. Globe instituted a dedicated Board Risk Oversight Committee in April 2019. The BROC was established to assist the Board of Directors in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities in relation to risk governance, to anchor clear definition of risk-taking responsibility and authority, while ensuring effective functioning of enterprise risk management framework. This step will play a crucial role in enhancing the robustness of the company by proactively managing risks, thereby ensuring continuous stakeholder value creation. In closing, I'd like to thank our Board of Directors, the whole management team and all our employees for their untiring commitment and dedication to serving our customers. Our Board members remain engaged across a variety of governance committees throughout the year, and our employee and executive teams work tirelessly to improve our standards, to innovate and to enhance our customers' experience. I would also like to thank our business partners, all of you, for the support, our customers for their loyal patronage and our fellow shareholders for their trust and confidence in our ability to build and create stakeholder value in the years ahead. Thank you again for joining us here today. I now hand over the floor to our President and CEO, Mr. Ernest Cu, to deliver his report. Thank you.

Ernest Cu

executive
#13

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and a pleasant morning to all of you here present in the meeting. Thank you for making it to our first -- our virtual shareholders' meeting, quite unusual, but I think, very practical given the times. As we know, it's the first for Globe given our extraordinary circumstances. We were hit by a health crisis so unexpected and with very dire implications. With Luzon being in strict enhanced community quarantine, Globe's role has even become more important as we empower our customers, whether individuals, families or businesses, to be informed and productive while in the safety of their homes. As soon as the enhanced community quarantine took effect, we were quick to respond with solutions to ensure our customers are connected right when they needed it the most. We made sure to continue operations with minimal disruption. The first step, obviously, for us, was to protect our workforce. We transitioned our workforce to a work-from-home mode while setting up a critical skeletal force to ensure continuous connectivity for our customers. Our protection of our staff is also very important as we expect to come out strong after this crisis is over. We also quickly activated free unlimited public WiFi in a growing list of hospitals, facilities, airports, supermarkets and also provided additional data for our consumers. We quickly extended due dates for all bill payments as well as extended the validity of our rewards points. These rewards points are going to become very critical, as you will see later on, as many of our consumers contributed millions of pesos to be able to supply PPEs that are much needed by our health centers. We also opened up digital channels for reloading, payments and other services. In collaboration with the other companies in the Ayala Group, we also assisted in converting a part of the World Trade Center into a temporary COVID quarantine facility. We equipped customers and employees to help out in the fight against COVID-19 through different donation channels where they can contribute while they stay safe at home. As of today, these donations covering rewards, GCash, our own employee programs as well as stakeholder programs, including Singtel, donated a total of almost over PHP 56 million across these multiple platforms. Most of this has gone toward supporting frontliners, again, with PPE requirements, and helping poor families in the Philippines cope with the ECQ. As we live through the uncertainty of the times, we remain proactive in coming up with relevant answers to our customers' needs. We realize how crucial our role is in order for this country to continue working and making it through this challenge. And we will make sure to put our customers first, as we always do. As we look forward to better days ahead, allow me to take you through our very eventful 2019 and what the rest of 2020 has in store for us in Globe. I will do this now via this prerecorded report. Thank you very much. 2019 has been a year of remarkable growth, driven by innovative customer-centric solutions, paving the way to enabling the fast-track digital transformation of the economy. The year-end focus has been special for all of us at Globe as we launched 5G in June 2019, strengthening our service delivery of broadband via fixed wireless access technology. Having made a record investment of PHP 51 billion, we have made strong strides towards our vision of redefining customer experience, enabling last-mile connectivity and revitalizing the digital economy of the country. We were able to deliver strong financial performance while making a substantial positive impact on our society and the environment. Our company emerged with strong performance despite market changes and the domestic and global economic slowdown. We posted service revenues of PHP 149 billion, 12% higher compared to 2018. This growth was primarily fueled by the gains from data services spanning mobile, broadband and corporate data. Total data revenues at the end of 2019 accounted for 71% of total service revenues, evidence that more Filipinos are embracing a digitally enabled lifestyle. I am delighted to report that today, we are the service provider of choice for over 96 million customers nationwide. This positions us as an important player in connecting minds and inspiring ideas across the Philippines through digitization. With an increasing customer base and emerging customer needs, we endeavored to make substantial investments towards building our network infrastructure. As of December 2019, we have put up 139% more sites and 28% more 3G and 4G base stations compared to 2018. These investments have translated to more customers enjoying higher data speeds, specifically improved LTE download and upload speeds and lower latency, as confirmed by a third-party network quality test provider. We have also extended our partnerships with leading providers of content, mobile messaging, social media and other popular OTT applications. This is in order to provide products and services that cater to shifting customer preferences. As our customers realize the potential of digitization, our service proposition will focus on owning our customers through superior service experience. We anticipate enhanced customer delight given our improved service delivery capabilities, coupled with unique offerings encompassing personalized plans and attractive product device bundles. For us, at Globe, the true value we create lies on the impact we have on the lives of people: our customers, employees, business associates, suppliers, vendors and Filipinos at large. Our employees are at the forefront of helping us achieve our goals and vision of ensuring that we create value for all our stakeholders. They share our desire for sustainable practices and are key to furthering our sustainable agenda. We make it known to our employees that the ideas and innovation they bring to the company are central to the success we achieve year-on-year. In recognition of our employee-centric organizational culture, we have achieved a 91% sustainable engagement score in 2018 and an 88% organizational index score in the same year. Globe aspires to be an industry leader with purpose, helping customers discover new ways to enjoy life. As a company driven by purpose and passion, we are proud to share the result of our Purpose survey with 3 purpose index indicators: number one, role and work contribution to Globe purpose, 91 in 2019 and 87 in 2018; number two, personal purpose contribution to Globe purpose, 88 in 2019 and 87 in 2018. Employer NPS is the likeliness to recommend Globe as an employer. We scored 53.4 in 2019 versus 43.38 in 2018. The Purpose survey spends as a gauge to determining how our employees resonate with the Globe purpose and their insights on factors that contribute to how they can live out the purpose in Globe, including culture, clarity and ways of working. Our business partners, vendors and suppliers play a vital role in furthering our business in a sustainable manner. We have formed an ecosystem that creates a mutually inspiring atmosphere to achieve greater integration of sustainability in business. This year, we reinforced our position as a change agent, leading Filipinos to a digitally enabled lifestyle by incubating, developing and operating new nontelecom businesses. By leveraging on Globe's strengths and assets, these start-ups are nurtured by Globe to maximize the value they generate. We launched a new subsidiary, 917Ventures, which will hold all of Globe's incubator start-ups that are beyond telecommunications. 917Ventures will now house Globe Fintech Innovations, or Mynt, the company that operates the leading mobile wallet, GCash. It will also hold Adspark Holdings, a digital advertising firm, as well as KonsultaMD, a telehealth firm. Globe's push for new digital businesses is seen to play an important role in actualizing the company's vision while sealing its future growth trajectory. Through this initiative, we are confident that the Philippines can catch up with the rest of the region in terms of ICD adoption, particularly in areas of great importance like advanced medicine, health and wellness, delivery of basic services and education. As natural resources play an indispensable role in the well-being of society, we strive to conduct our expansion and capability building in a manner that exerts minimum impact on the environment. We strive to find innovative avenues to offset our environmental impact. We have focused on deploying green network solutions and have rolled out almost 7,000 of these in 2019. Indeed, we are now living in times where we are experiencing the impact of climate change. We have worked towards initiating a robust business continuity management plan to mitigate the risks arising from extreme weather events and climate-linked risks. We are also actively contributing to climate change mitigation. For instance, we have been able to save over 650 tons of paper through customers shifting to paperless billing. In addition, by automating and migrating our internal processes to a paperless mode, we have been able to save over 20 tons of paper, equivalent to saving 480 trees. We also institutionalized the avoidance of single-use plastics in our office environment and engaged our concessionaires to look for alternatives. Last September, we held the Plastic Xchange Program in 7 barangays in Metro Manila, in partnership with Ayala Land and Green Antz. Over 245,000 pieces of single-use plastic waste was collected and turned into 24,500 ecobricks by Green Antz. The ecobricks will be used to build community gardens and benches, a waste segregation facility and a creek fence. It will also be used for rehabilitation of daycare centers. In 2019, Globe became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, and we commit to implement universal sustainability principles and integrate these into the business. For the global telecom sector, interesting and promising times lie ahead. To sustain the momentum we have gained, we will ramp up infrastructure spending to improve network experience with a committed budget of PHP 63 billion in capital expenditures in 2020. Our acquisitions and partnerships in the area of electronic payments through ECPay and information technology through Yondu point toward how we create and intend to grow new businesses by leveraging our core assets. For 0917 Lifestyle, we are excited for the next year as we expand outside our Globe stores and online shops to open our first flagship 0917 store in Makati. Our flagship store will be carrying our exclusive Vanguard collection, infusing fashion and tech in our apparel collection, as well as key collaborations to give life to our vision for 0917 to become a fashion and tech brand that consumers will desire. This concludes my report. It is my hope that this has enabled you to understand our shared value creation story and approach towards entrenching the culture of sustainability in our business endeavors. Thank you very much.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#14

Thank you very much, Ernest. If I could now ask the Secretary to present the proposed resolution of this item and the voting results, please?

Solomon Hermosura

executive
#15

Mr. Chairman, management is proposing the adoption of resolution number S02-2020 for the approval of the corporation's 2019 annual report, including the 2019 audited financial statements of Globe Telecom Inc. The resolution is on the screen. On the voting results, Mr. Chairman, I'm pleased to report that stockholders owning 275,864,455 shares or 99.95% of the shares represented in this meeting have voted for the adoption of the resolution. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, Resolution S02-2020 has been approved.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#16

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. We now move to the next item on the agenda, the ratification of all acts and resolutions of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and other Board committees as well as all the acts of management since the Annual Stockholders Meeting on April 23, 2019 until April 21, 2020. Attorney Hermosura will explain this matter and present the proposed resolution, together with the voting results thereon.

Solomon Hermosura

executive
#17

Mr. Chairman, our Board and management seek ratification of all the acts and resolutions of the Board, Executive Committee and other Board committees, exercising powers delegated by the Board, which were adopted from April 23, 2019, until today. These acts and resolutions are reflected in the minutes of the meetings, and they include the election of officers and members of the various Board committees, revisions of our corporation's related party transactions, whistleblowing and insider trading policies and matters covered by disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange. Stockholders' ratification is also being sought for all the acts of the corporation's officers, performed in accordance with the resolutions of the Board, the Executive Committee and other Board committees as well as the bylaws from April 23, 2019, to date. These acts were performed to implement the resolutions of the Board or its committees or as part of the corporation's general conduct of its business. Mr. Chairman, the resolution is on the screen. Now on the voting results, Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to report that stockholders owning 275,848,005 shares or 99.94% of the shares represented in this meeting have voted for the adoption of resolution number S03-2020. Therefore, the resolution is adopted.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#18

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. The next order of business is the election of the 11 members of the Board of Directors for the ensuring year. Mr. Rex Mendoza, Chairman of our Nomination and Governance Committee, will please explain this item in his prerecorded message.

Rex Maria Mendoza

executive
#19

Mr. Chairman, in accordance with the bylaws of the corporation, its manual of corporate governance and the SEC rules, the names of the following nominees to the Board of Directors of Globe Telecom, Inc. were submitted to the Nomination and Governance Committee of the Board of Directors by a minority stockholder, and each one is accepted in writing such nomination. They are, number one, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala; two, Delfin L. Lazaro; three, Lang Tao Yih, Arthur; four, Fernando Zobel de Ayala; five, Jose Teodoro K. Limcaoco; six, Romeo L. Bernardo; seven, Ernest L. Cu; eight, Samba Natarajan; nine, Saw Phaik Hwa; ten, Cirilo P. Noel; and eleven, Rex Ma. A. Mendoza. Ms. Saw Phaik Hwa, Attorney Cirilo P. Noel and myself were nominated as Independent Directors. The nomination closed on March 6, 2020. Thereupon, the Nomination and Governance Committee in the exercise of its assigned task determined that the 11 nominees, inclusive of the 3 nominees for Independent Directors, are qualified to serve as directors of the corporation. All the nominees have given their consent to their respective nominations.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#20

Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, may we have the results of this election?

Solomon Hermosura

executive
#21

Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'm pleased to report that each of the 11 nominees for directors has garnered at least 263,186,565 votes. Given this, I certify that each of the nominees has received enough votes for election to the Board, and that resolution number S-04-2020 has been approved. The resolution is on this screen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#22

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. The next item on the agenda is the election of the independent auditors and the fixing of their remuneration. The Chairman of the Audit and Related Party Transactions Committee, Attorney Cirilo P. Noel, will explain the matter in this prerecorded message. Thank you.

Cirilo Noel

executive
#23

Mr. Chairman, in line with the company's corporate governance policy, the Audit and Related Party Transactions Committee recommends the accounting firm of Isla Lipana & Co PwC as the company's independent auditor for year 2020. Accordingly, the Audit and Related Party Transactions Committee proposed and the Board of Directors agreed to endorse the election of Isla Lipana & Co PwC Philippines as the independent auditor of the Globe Group for the current fiscal year for a fee of PHP 13.5 million, inclusive of 3% OPE. The lead engagement partner for 2020 will be Mr. Roderick N. Danao. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#24

Thank you very much. I will now ask our Secretary to present the proposed resolution of this item and the voting results.

Solomon Hermosura

executive
#25

Mr. Chairman, management is proposing the adoption of resolution number S-05-2020 for the election of the corporation's independent auditors and the fixing of their remuneration. The resolution is on the screen. I am pleased to report, Mr. Chairman, that shareholders owning 274,823,209 shares or 99.57% of the shares represented in this meeting have voted in favor of resolution number S-05-2020. Therefore, the resolution is approved.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#26

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Mr. Secretary, are there other matters that require consideration by the stockholders?

Solomon Hermosura

executive
#27

There are none, Mr. Chairman.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#28

Thank you very much. We will now address questions and comments from the stockholders. Our Director for Investor Relations, Mr. Fajardo, will read aloud the questions and comments together with the names of the stockholders who sent them. Thank you.

Jose Mari Fajardo

executive
#29

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We received several questions from stockholders. The first comes from [ Ms. Jocelyn S. Mallari ]. Are there any new updates on the company's 5G deployment? As mentioned in the Chairman's and President's presentations, the company launched the Globe At Home Air Fiber 5G service last July 2019 on a commercial pilot basis, which marks an important company milestone and made the Philippines the first Southeast Asian country to experience fifth-generation or 5G fixed wireless broadband. Last February 2020, the company yet again took another step forward by releasing the first 5G-ready device, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro in the Philippines. This serves as a precursor for the future launch of relevant 5G offers for the home and central business districts. The next question comes from [ Mr. Cervil Arsenio P. Garcia ]. What is the current state of industry competition, and how is Globe preparing for the entry of Dito? Increased competition remains fairly rational as incumbents continue to monetize increased demand for data services. Also, the industry is more focused on protecting network operations to ensure availability of service for customers nationwide with connectivity being more vital at this time. Globe's response at this time to the impending entry of Dito is to continue its network rollout in order to increase capacity and availability in Metro Manila and key cities nationwide as this will be key to ensure we are able to compete properly. As to whether or not Dito meets its technical trial and commercial launch targets, increasing the company's network capacity will pay off as this will be monetized given the increased demand for data services. The third question comes from [ Mr. Jose Mari Solano ]. What is the debt level of growth as of end 2019? As of end 2019, total debt level for the company amounted to PHP 136 billion, down from PHP 148 billion a year ago. In fact, our balance sheet is in great health with financial ratios at the best ever levels since 2015. As of end 2019, net debt-to-equity is at 1.58x, and net debt-to-EBITDA is at 1.75x. For all other questions from stockholders, these will be answered by management directly by e-mail. Lastly, Mr. Chairman, we wish to thank our stockholders for their participation. Registered shareholders with Globe postpaid accounts will receive 300 Globe Rewards points, while registered shareholders with Globe prepaid accounts will receive PHP 300 Globe prepaid load. Thank you again for joining us. Stay #SafeAtHome. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala

executive
#30

Thank you very much, Mr. Fajardo. At this point then, if there are no other matters of concern from the stockholders, the meeting is hereby adjourned. We will be posting a link to the recorded webcast of this meeting on our website. Stockholders may raise any issues, clarifications and concerns on the meeting conducted within 2 weeks from posting of the link by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. You can see it up there on the screen. Again, a big thank you to everyone for joining us. I wish everyone continued good health as we forge ahead during this turbulent time. Please, all of you, take care, stay safe. And we look forward to seeing you next year. Thank you very much.

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