Driven by the expansion in subscriber base and flourishing enterprise business, fiber broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. (Converge) exhibited a 11.5% growth in its consolidated revenue when it generated PhP8.6-billion for the first three months of 2023 compared with the same period last year.
Residential subscription base with net additions reached 43,000, with postpaid subscribers accounting for 67% while the remaining 33% of net subscriber additions was represented by prepaid fiber subscribers. As of the first quarter of 2023, Converge has 1.9-million postpaid and nearly 30,000 prepaid fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) subscribers.
Revenues on the company’s enterprise business rose 32.4% to PhP1.2-billion in the first quarter of 2023 due to the growth achieved across all sub-segments – small and medium enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises, corporates, and wholesale.
Converge also realized an increase of 13.5% in its quarterly EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) to PhP5.2-billion. Its consolidated EBITDA margin improved to 59.9% due to growing scale, proactive cost management, and judicious monitoring and recognition of contract costs of active subscribers.
As a result, the company reported a positive bottomline when its net income after tax grew 11% to P2.2-billion, with a net income margin of 25.1% for the first quarter of 2023.
“Our commitment to providing world-class broadband services, coupled with our strategic investments in our network infrastructure, has enabled us to post positive first-quarter results. Converge is well-positioned to be the preferred internet service provider of customers as we continue to focus on reaching the unserved and underserved markets,” said Converge co-founder and CEO Dennis Anthony Uy.
Meanwhile, Converge corners 33% share of the total market for fiber broadband in the Philippines. The company’s market share has been growing since it did the IPO, and optimistic about the expansion in the lower income segment of the market. This is done by offering more affordable products, including prepaid fiber internet.
By June this year, Converge intends to fully launch its prepaid offering Surf2Sawa to the lower-income market, which accounts for approximately 9.3-million households.
Surf2Sawa is a prepaid fiber-to-the-home plan of Converge for Filipinos looking for “sachet” or “tingi” offerings, with various top-up options such as P700 for 30-day unlimited connectivity, P380 for a 15-day subscription, P200 for a seven-day unlimited internet, and P50 for a one-day subscription.
Converge is anticipating more opportunities for subscriber growth in the coming years, bolstered by its expansion into the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
