Converge sustains 40 percent growth with its revenues in 1st quarter of 2022

MINERVA BC NEWMAN

CEBU CITY – Converge ICT Solutions Inc. a fiber broadband provider grew its revenues by 40 percent to P7.75B in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year with the continued strong increase in the residential subscription and increasing demand from enterprise and business clients.

\“We are seeing a solid growth of our financials in the first quarter of 2022 and we expect to hit our full-year targets as we remain aggressive in our network rollout and marketing activities both in the residential and enterprise segments,” Converge CEO/Co-Founder Dennis Anthony Uy said.

In a media briefing on May 16, Converge revealed that it registered gross subscriber adds of 188,000 during the quarter, up by 15 percent from the last quarter in 2021 leading to 1.8 million subscribers, higher by 53 percent compared to its level a year ago.

Uy said that the company’s core net income grew to almost P2.0B in the first quarter of 2022 representing a core net income margin of 25.4 percent.

With this growth, it propped up the revenue growth in the enterprise business that included the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), corporate, large enterprise and wholesale. The reopening of the economy and gradual thriving of the SMEs aided the segment’s growth.

Revenues for the enterprise business, according to Converge, amounted to P935.5M in the first quarter of 2022 which is 25 percent higher compared to P749.7M in first quarter of 2021.  SMEs contributed 20 percent to the total and by itself grew by 118 percent year on year.  SMEs subscribers of Converge reached 25,810 as of March 21, 2022, a growth of 200 percent.

The revival of the economy and the return of businesses, especially the SMEs has given the enterprise business a push in the first quarter of the year.  “We hope to offer more values to SMEs as the continue to recover,” Coverge president/Chief Resource Officer and Chief Risk Officer, Maria Grace Uy said.

Converge continues to ensure Filipinos enjoy high availability, aggressively rolling out its fiber ports in the first quarter of 2022 and reaching 6.5M ports as of March 2022. This puts it on track to reach the accelerated target of 7.5M to eight million ports by 2023.

According to Converge, its nationwide household coverage as of first quarter of 2022 is at 47 percent. In terms of homes passed, 12.2M homes in the Philippines are serviceable by Converge, which is 70 percent higher than the same period in 2021.

Despite its massive network investments, Converge maintained an industry-leading return on invested capital of 17.3 percent due to the company’s disciplined approach in deploying capital to expand its fiber network and tracking key capital efficiency indicators such as port utilization ratios.