Converge ICT revenues rose 67% in first 9 months

Listed Converge ICT Solutions Inc. said on Friday its strong rollout and subscriber growth boosted its January-to-September revenues by 67 percent to P10.7 billion year-on-year.

In a disclosure, Converge ICT said its residential business contributed P8.4 billion to total revenues and its enterprises business contributed P2.3 billion in the period.

“Despite the Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic-related headwinds in the Philippine enterprise connectivity market, which, according to the market research firm MPA, is expected to result in a decline of the market in 2020, the enterprise business of Converge continued to grow steadily,” the company said in the disclosure.

According to the internet provider, its consolidated revenues for the third quarter increased by 71 percent to P4.2 billion.

Converge ICT continued to expand its network infrastructure in the three-month period and has deployed around 490,000 additional fiber-to-the-home ports, 2.7 times more than the number recorded in the first quarter.

As of end-September, Converge ICT’s network has reached more than 5.1 million homes nationwide.

The number of new subscribers, meanwhile, jumped to 900,531 last month from 454,438 a year earlier.

Converge ICT debuted on the PSE on Monday, with its shares down 9.4 percent or P1.58 to P15.22 each at the end of trading.

Converge ICT shares declined by 38 centavos or 2.51 percent to finish at P14.78 apiece on Friday.

Ayala-led Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) incurred a net loss of $13.5 million in the first nine months of 2020 despite an improved third-quarter profit.

In a filing on Thursday, the listed manufacturing arm of AC Industrial Technology Holdings Inc. said revenues fell to $789 million in January to September from $940 million year-on-year.

For July to September, net income reached $9.5 million, which included a one-off gain of $2.4 million. Revenues grew to $312 million in the period as operations normalized in all the firm’s facilities.

“IMI’s diverse expertise across multiple business segments, along with our wide geographical footprint, has allowed us to rebound from the pandemic stronger and faster than market expectations,” IMI President and Chief Executive Officer Arthur Tan said in the filing.