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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Let's pivot back and

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Speaker 1: have a look at Southeast Asia, specifically the Philippines and

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Speaker 1: the Changing Guard. They are the country's largest telco. Her

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Speaker 1: market cap on your screens. This Globe share price down

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Speaker 1: about is seventy eight percent. It's hardly been a good year,

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Speaker 1: certainly for overall for markets. Just to put that into context.

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Speaker 1: Joining us now is Carl Raymond Cruz officially appointed the

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Speaker 1: CEO at Globe at the company's annual stockholders meeting just

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Speaker 1: in fact, which I believe just concluded a couple of

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Speaker 1: minutes back. Good morning, and thanks for taking the time

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Speaker 1: to speak with us. How is your first AGM?

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Speaker 2: Good morning? First of all, thank you for having me

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Speaker 2: in this show. The first AGM went well. We had

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Speaker 2: the seamless Annual Stockholders Meeting, so hopefully it bodes well

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Speaker 2: for the future of Globe. What lies ahead for all

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Speaker 2: of us?

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Speaker 1: All right now? What everyone is yes thinking? And I'm

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Speaker 1: sure you've entertained the question as well, Carl in since

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Speaker 1: the announcement, what are your initial priorities now for the company.

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Speaker 2: Well, I will spend a disproportionate amount of time listening

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Speaker 2: to the organization engaging consumers and really trying to bring

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Speaker 2: a sharper customer mindset. I think, coming from my years

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Speaker 2: of experience in the FMCG industry and having worked in

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Speaker 2: a number of markets which are slightly similar, some are

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Speaker 2: probably more volatile than the Philippines, you know, there's a

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Speaker 2: sense that the demand is really driven by a very

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Speaker 2: heavy consumer sector. So hopefully my training to obsess about

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Speaker 2: what the consumer wants and act in it fast will

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Speaker 2: do well for my new journey at Globe.

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Speaker 3: I'm sure your training with consumers will will pay off.

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Speaker 3: But what are you hearing then in terms of the

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Speaker 3: concerns of recession or the concerns about tariffs and the

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Speaker 3: impact on inflation. How am i that you know potentially

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Speaker 3: feed into the demand from consumers.

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Speaker 2: Well, obviously it has impacted consumer purchasing power. While I

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Speaker 2: think the economy of the Philippines is going through coming

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Speaker 2: back to normalcy where inflation is actually going down and

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Speaker 2: GDP stable at about five six percent, you know, it

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Speaker 2: is up to key players such as Globe to make

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Speaker 2: sure that we actually accelerate consumer demand for Telco and

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Speaker 2: our products. The good thing about the Philippines, it's the

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Speaker 2: fastest growing digital economy in Southeast Asia, and this boats

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Speaker 2: well for US and the Philippines having, of course a

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Speaker 2: very young population that are already online, boats well again

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Speaker 2: for the future of Globe because our future customer base

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Speaker 2: is now online and actually growing.

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Speaker 3: This is also coming against the backdrop though, of maturing

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Speaker 3: core telco business. For Glow overall, what is that going

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Speaker 3: to mean in terms of the strategy You're going to

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Speaker 3: deploy to fire revenues profits correct.

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Speaker 2: So you know, in my first ninety days of onboarding,

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Speaker 2: I looked at what made Globe successful and one of

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Speaker 2: the key success factors of the organization, besides of course

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Speaker 2: having a great engaged set of employees and having a

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Speaker 2: great culture, is the fact that everyone in the organization

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Speaker 2: is obsessed with the customers. So moving forward, while a

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Speaker 2: lot of people think that the industry is mature, opportunities

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Speaker 2: actually abound. I'll give you one example. In the Philippines,

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Speaker 2: site density is actually.

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Speaker 1: Not that good.

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Speaker 2: I think we have about close to five thousand users

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Speaker 2: per site. When you compare that to Thai Land we

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Speaker 2: have the population, they're only at about one thousand, five

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Speaker 2: hundred to two thousand users at site level. While people

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Speaker 2: will say it's a mature market. Yes it is, but

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Speaker 2: opportunities abound in terms of future revenue growth.

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Speaker 1: Right and Carl Well, speaking of since you brought up

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Speaker 1: revenue growth, I mean, I think you guys cleared in

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Speaker 1: the last calendar. I'm just trying to rack my brain.

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Speaker 1: I think it was one hundred eighty billion that's local

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Speaker 1: currency in revenues last year. The last few years have

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Speaker 1: seen low to mid single digit revenue growth. Are you

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Speaker 1: happy with that rate of growth?

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Speaker 2: You're absolutely correct, David. So it's about low to single digit.

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Speaker 2: The guidance will remain to be low to single digit

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Speaker 2: at this point in time while we repivot in terms

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Speaker 2: of looking at how we are positioned in the mobile

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Speaker 2: segment and getting a bit more aggressive in the broadband

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Speaker 2: segment and also enterprise or B to B. That guidance

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Speaker 2: as of now remains, but you know, moving forward, ambition

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Speaker 2: is to actually be the largest, most profitable, and most

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Speaker 2: ad marketelco operator in the Philippines. And for us to

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Speaker 2: attain that, we need to get to a stronger position

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Speaker 2: in both the fiber market and as well B to B.

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Speaker 1: What kind of topics are we talking for you to

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Speaker 1: be able to put yourself in a position to realize

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Speaker 1: those objectives.

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Speaker 2: So our capecks are still would still be at a

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Speaker 2: healthy level. We're clearing about thirty to thirty four percent

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Speaker 2: in terms of CAPEX productivity, but at the same time,

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Speaker 2: bulk of that will be put on and spent on

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Speaker 2: obviously data. This, as I said, the Philippines is the

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Speaker 2: fastest growing digital economy in Southeast Asia, in the subregion,

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Speaker 2: and therefore, to my mind, very clearly, based on what

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Speaker 2: I've seen so far, Globe is best positioned to actually

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Speaker 2: ensure that we benefit from that uptick.

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Speaker 3: Of course we've seen we're of course seeing a lot

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Speaker 3: of market volatility in the meantime. Markets are looking forward

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Speaker 3: as well to the g Cash IPO, that timeline and

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Speaker 3: what we can potentially expect in terms of size. What

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Speaker 3: more can you tell us about this.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, everyone, it's all hands on deck to

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Speaker 2: actually get g Cash to be a pushbottom ready for

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Speaker 2: an IPO. Tentative timing would be anywhere between the last

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Speaker 2: quarter of the year or the first half of next year,

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Speaker 2: so all hands are in deck to make sure that

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Speaker 2: it's going to be the most successful offering in the

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Speaker 2: Philippine market and Obviously, from what you guys know, the

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Speaker 2: valuation the last time it is valued is a five

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Speaker 2: billion US dollars. We do expect, based on certain assumptions

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Speaker 2: that hopefully could be better than that.

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Speaker 3: How much better are we looking at here?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm not in a position, but based on what

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Speaker 2: you know, the analysts are saying it could definitely be higher.

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Speaker 2: I just don't want to moment on a figure right now, David.

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Speaker 1: Right, I think your I think Ernest your predecessor mentioned,

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Speaker 1: I think we spoke to him a few weeks A

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Speaker 1: guy said he was happy with at least eight. But

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Speaker 1: I realize, and you know, I acknowledge that there are

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Speaker 1: lots of moving parts, including by the way, I think

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Speaker 1: your separate conversations that you guys are having with the

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Speaker 1: exchange and the minimum float and what have you. Once

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Speaker 1: it's listed, and let's say, let's just for conversation's sake,

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Speaker 1: it's listed before the end of the year, to your

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Speaker 1: point early next year, what role will you play specifically

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Speaker 1: and Globe play in terms of running that specific business.

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Speaker 2: So Globe will remain to be the largest shareholder of

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Speaker 2: mintor g cash, And of course we have we have

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Speaker 2: to maintain an arms length relationship with Gkash because they

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Speaker 2: also serve, for example, other players in the industry. So

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Speaker 2: I will be playing a coordinating role with Ernest and

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Speaker 2: the team led by Martha to make sure that we

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Speaker 2: continue to lead the digital and financially inclusion in the Philippines.

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Speaker 2: So in exciting times ahead both for Cortel, Quod, Globe

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Speaker 2: and as well for Findech A G Cash.

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Speaker 3: David and April, Yeah, and thank you for taking the

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Speaker 3: time to come and share some of your upcoming plans.

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Speaker 3: Congratulations on a successful first AGM. Really going to keep

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Speaker 3: a close watch on how you're going to steer the

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Speaker 3: business going forward. Thanks so much again, Cale, Raymond Cruz,

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Speaker 3: CEO of Globe Telecom