Japan's DoCoMo to invest $300M in PLDT

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Japan's DoCoMo to invest $300M in PLDT

Posted: 2:59 AM Jan. 04, 2006
Inquirer with Agence France-Presse

JAPAN'S top mobile telecom firm NTT DoCoMo is to invest some 300 million dollars in Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced Tuesday.

Arroyo disclosed the information on nationally televised program with her Cabinet officials but gave no further details.
"I want to announce what PLDT chair Manny Pangilinan told me -- that NTT DoCoMo will put in 300 million dollars into PLDT," Arroyo said.

She noted that NTT's investment came on the heels of a P3-billion cash infusion by the Indonesian conglomerate, Lippo Group, into its local banking unit, Export Industry Bank.

"We are seeing a lot of investments coming into the country every day and we hope that this will continue throughout the year," Arroyo said.

Officials of PLDT, the country's leading telecom carrier, were not available for comment but a news report in Manila earlier said Japan's NTT Communications Corp. was planning to sell its shares in PLDT to affiliate DoCoMo.

The report quoted unnamed sources as saying NTT may even increase its equity interest in PLDT once the latter ventures into third-generation mobile technology, or 3G, where DoCoMo has expertise.

PLDT's mobile phone unit Smart Communications Inc. was among four Philippine firms that secured 3G wireless licenses from the National Telecommunications Commission.

NTT is the second-biggest foreign shareholder in PLDT with a 14.7-percent stake, next to Hong Kong's First Pacific Co. Ltd., which has 24 percent. With INQ7.net

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