Globe initiated its tower sale agreements with MIDC and PhilTower back in 2022, aiming to raise funds to reduce maturing debt and strengthen its financial position
In sum – what to know:
Tower divestment almost complete – Globe has sold 6,945 towers and raised PHP89.3B ($1.5B) since 2022 as part of its monetization strategy.
Latest deals with MIDC, PhilTower – Globe sold 96 towers in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao for PHP1.3B, continuing its phased sale-and-leaseback approach.
Funds to reduce debt, boost expansion – Executives said the move enhances capital efficiency, reduces liabilities, and supports future digital infrastructure investments.
Globe Telecom, which is the largest mobile network operator in the Philippines, is closing in on the final stages of its tower sale-and-leaseback strategy, having transferred ownership of nearly 7,000 towers and raised PHP89.3 billion ($1.5 billion) in proceeds over the past three years.
In its latest transactions, Globe finalized the sale of 12 ground-based towers in Luzon to MIESCOR Infrastructure Development Corporation (MIDC) for around PHP144 million. Separately, it sold 84 towers located in the Visayas and Mindanao regions to PhilTower Consortium, bringing in PHP1.2 billion. Among these, 71 towers are ground-based and 13 are rooftop sites.
Since launching the tower divestment initiative in 2022, the Asian carrier has made consistent progress: 2,410 towers were sold in 2022, 2,057 towers followed in 2023, and 2,205 towers in 2024.
So far in 2025, another 273 towers have been handed over, generating roughly PHP3.5 billion in fresh capital.
Overall, 6,945 towers have been divested since the program began. Globe initiated its tower sale agreements with MIDC and PhilTower back in 2022, aiming to raise funds to reduce maturing debt and strengthen its financial position.
“Today marks another milestone in our tower monetization initiative. With the substantial handover of sites, we continue to move forward with our goal of strengthening Globe’s financial position. This transfer enhances our flexibility to manage liabilities, allocate capital more effectively, and support investments in essential infrastructure and digital platforms,” said Carlos Puno, Globe’s CFO, treasurer, and chief risk officer.
Globe CEO and President Carl Raymond Cruz emphasized that these moves help the company evolve into a more agile operator. “The ongoing tower divestment prepares the operator for future expansion,” he said, adding that it positions Globe to become a more “capital-efficient organization.”
Of all the towers sold, 43% have been acquired by MIDC and PhilTower, with the remainder going to Frontier Tower Associates Philippines.
Globe Telecom had expanded its 5G network infrastructure in the first quarter of the year, covering 98.71% of Metro Manila and 97.97% of major cities in the Visayas and Mindanao.
The telco said that this 5G expansion in Q1 2025 was supported by the addition of 235 new 5G sites. The carrier also noted that these improvements served more than 9.5 million 5G-enabled devices.
Finnish vendor Nokia previously said it was deploying its modular Interleaved Passive Active Antenna (IPAA+) for Globe Telecom across the southern islands of the Philippines.
The European vendor noted that this new deployment was expected to help to accelerate 5G deployment in the region.
Nokia’s IPAA+ solution has a light, modular design and supports all 5G frequency bands in a single antenna, including the 2.6 GHz spectrum band, the vendor said. Nokia’s IPAA+ also has the capability to support other bands, which means that previous investments made by operators are protected.
In February 2021, Nokia had announced that it was selected by Globe Telecom for a three-year deal to upgrade its existing 4G network, as well as expand the geographical reach of its 5G network at over 1,000 sites in the Philippines. That deployment covered the second and third largest islands of Mindanao and Visayas and began in 2021.
