ABS-CBN Corp. said Tuesday it borrowed P5 billion from Union Bank of the Philippines to partially fund its 2019 capital expenditures.
The broadcast unit of the Lopez Group said the term loan agreement with Union Bank would have a term of 10 years.
“The loan shall be used to partially finance the company’s capital expenditures and general corporate requirements,” ABS-CBN said.
The company allotted P6 billion for the 2019 capex to fund digital transformation, broadband business expansion and program rights acquisition.
ABS-CBN earlier reported a net income of P808 million in January to March, up 98 percent from the P410-million net profit it booked in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues reached P10.3 billion, up from last year’s P9 billion.
The company said of the total revenues, advertising sales amounted to P5.4 billion, up 24.4 percent from last year’s P4.3 billion on higher political placements and growth in regular advertising.
It said that excluding political placements, regular advertising increased 14.6 percent year-on-year.
Consumer sales went up 6.2 percent to P4.9 billion on higher TVPlus boxes sold and theatrical receipts from ABS-CBN Films.
ABS-CBN TVPlus contributed a significant increase in revenues in the first quarter with a total of 638,000 boxes sold, up 9 percent from the same period last year.
Film & Music’s revenues grew 21 percent in the first quarter.
Sky’s revenues rose 4 percent year-on-year, led by an increase in broadband and DTH subscribers by 26,000 and 531,000, respectively.
