By MYLA IGLESIAS

The country’s second largest telecom firm, Globe Telecom Inc., yesterday said net income last year reached P13.3 billion, up 13 percent from the previous year’s P11.8 billion.

About 75 percent of that profit will return to stockholders as dividend according to the company.

The company also prepaid $300 million debts last year.

Aggressive promotions helped boost its mobile revenues with five million additionals SIMs posted.

The company said it had net income of P3.27 billion in the fourth quarter, up 10 percent from P3.59 billion in the same period of 2006.

Globe is the Philippines’ second most valuable company with a market capitalization of $5.3 billion.

Globe and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. are expected to have seen 25 percent mobile subscriber growth last year, beating industry predictions of a slowdown in new users. Consumer spending supported largely by strong remittances from Filipinos working overseas, boosted mobile subscriber growth.

Globe has a mobile market share of around 38 percent against PLDT’s 55 percent.

Shares of Globe climbed 27 percent in 2007, outperforming the 21 percent gain in the main index.

"We are very pleased with our strong results for 2007 despite the consistently challenging and competitive market," Gerardo C. Ablaza, Jr. President and CEO of Globe Telecom, Inc said.

Consolidated service revenues posted 11 percent year-on-year increase to reach a new peak of P63.2 billion, driven by growth of 11 percent and 7 percent from its wireless and wireline businesses, respectively.

"We hope to sustain this growth into 2008 through continued focus on the needs of our subscribers" said Ablaza.

As of last year, Globe has 20.3 million SIMs up 30 percent increase from 15 million subscribers in the same period last year.

During the year, the Company made lower denomination reloads available and made SIM pack costs more affordable. This include bulk voice offers (Globe’s P10 for a 3-minute call, TM’s 15 minute call for only P15, and 10 minute call for P20), as well as unlimited and bucket SMS promos which enjoyed strong uptake during the year.

On the other hand, Globe’s broadband business broke past the one billion peso revenue mark with its customer base rising by 133 percent to close the year with about 120,000 subscribers.

For 2008, the Ayala-owned telecom firm is allotting about $400 to $450 million in capital expenditures that would be spend for the investments in core mobile services, as well as wired and wireless broadband technologies.

This also includes amounts related to the Company’s participation in the TGN-Intra Asia Cable System, an international submarine cable project spearheaded by VSNL International of India, which will link the country to Japan , Hong Kong, and Singapore with onward connectivity to the US . Globe will be the exclusive landing party in the Philippines to this cable system.

With improved market position and strong financial results, the Board of Directors declared the first semi-annual cash dividend for 2008 of P37.50 per share to common stockholders of record as of 18 February 2008. This is consistent with the Company’s dividend policy of distributing 75 percent of prior year’s net income and represents a 14 percent increase over the previous semi-annual rate of P33. A total of P5.0 billion in dividends will be paid on 13 March 2008.