NTT invests P5B more in PLDT

By Emeterio Sd. Perez

Section Editor

THE Japanese-owned Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. paid P4,915,155,000, in buying additional 1,966,062 common voting shares in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., thereby raising its stake in the Philippines’s largest telecommunications group to 27,233,035 common voting shares. The acquisition cost is based on a P2,500 market price of PLDT common voting shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange. Despite the additional investments, the ratio of the combined ownership of the NTT units in PLDT only slightly rose to 14.438 percent from 13.488 percent because of the increase in PLDT’s outstanding common voting shares. The increase in outstanding common voting shares came from the issuance of PLDT common voting shares under the employees’ stock option plan and from the conversion of preferred shares into common voting shares. PLDT had 188,434,695 outstanding common voting shares as of December 31, 2006, and 188,613,889 as of April 26, 2007, or an increase of 179,194 shares. NTT said the PLDT common voting shares it owns are held by two of its majority-owned units. NTT Communications Corp. holds 12,633,487 common voting shares while NTT DoCoMo Inc. has 12,633,486 shares. In a filing, PLDT said NTT’s  additional acquisitions included 1,316,724 shares represented by American Depositary shares. PLDT’s ADRs closed at $54.61 on April 25. In its disclosure dated April 18, 2007, NTT said NTT DoCoMo bought the additional PLDT common voting shares from March 20, 2007 to April 16, 2007 “through the Philippine Stock Exchange and American Depositary Receipts through the New York Stock Exchange.” “Through these open market purchases, DoCoMo has acquired 1,966,062 additional shares (including 1,316,724 shares represented by American Depositary Shares),” NTT said in its filing. “Upon the acquisition of the additional DoCoMo PLDT shares, DoCoMo will beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately 14.5 percent of the voting power attached to the outstanding common shares,” NTT said. NTT said its investments in PLDT will continue if it finds “the market and other conditions favorable.” “…DoCoMo may increase its ownership of the company’s equity securities through open market purchases, negotiated purchases, or other transactions, up to the limitation of 21 percent of the common shares..” NTT said.  Equity update Foreigners own 76.60% of PLDT voting shares in three months, the foreign ownership of common voting shares in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. rose to 66.138 percent on March 31, 2007 from 59.865 percent on December 31, 2006. The filings with regulators showed the continued dilution of Filipino ownership in PLDT’s common voting shares. As of April 26, 2007, foreigners controlled the equivalent of 76.597 percent. The ratio was computed based on 188,613,889 outstanding common voting shares. Culled from various disclosures were the data on PLDT’s ownership profile naming First Pacific Co. as the biggest stockholder with “economic interest” of 28.67 percent. First Pacific is identified in the list of PLDT stockholders as the beneficial owner of the shares held by Philippine Telecommunication Investments Corp. and Metro Pacific Resources Inc. It has three other units, which also own PLDT the underlying common voting shares of American Depositary Receipts – Larouge B.V. with 4,711,949 shares, Semillion Enterprises Inc.,  4,152,236 shares and First Pacific Telecom Assets B.N., 2,048,667 shares.  PLDT, however, still has two Filipino stockholders who hold shares for the “public.” It listed the Social Security System as the record stockholder of 5,024,789 common voting shares, or 2.664 percent, and beneficial owner of 7,100,220 common voting shares, or 3.64 percent. The Government Service Insurance System owns 1,603,825 shares, or 0.850 percent. As record stockholder, SSS holds shares for borrowers under its stock purchase program. The increase in foreign ownership had two major sources. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., whose  two units used to own 13.4 percent of PLDT common voting shares, has been beefing up its holdings while First Pacific Co. bought the remaining 49 percent stake of the government in Philippine Telecommunication Investments Corp. PTIC owns 26,034,263 PLDT common voting shares of which 12,756,788.87 shares belong to Prime Holdings Inc. by virtue of its 49 percent minority stake in PTIC.  Top 100 stockholders PCD Nominee Corp. is PLDT’s biggest record stockholder. It holds for foreigners 56,305,867 shares, or 29.852 percent of outstanding 188,613,889 common voting shares as of April 26, 2007, and 18,046,115 common voting shares, or  9.567 percent for Filipino stockholders. Included in PCD Nominee are those held by foreign trustee banks such as Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp., Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank N.A. JP Morgan Assets Holdings (HK) Ltd. of Hong Kong holds 34,901,643 common voting shares, or 18.504 percent, for foreign stockholders. NTT Communications and NTT DoCoMo directly own  a total of 27,233,035 common voting shares, or 14.438 percent.

 

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