| FirstPac, govt formalize sale of PLDT shares |
| By Lenie Lectura |
| Reporter |
| THE government’s indirect stake in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) will be formally turned over to First Pacific Co. Ltd. Wednesday. Officials from the finance department, Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and First Pacific met Tuesday. There were talks that the parties already signed an agreement later that afternoon, but officials refused to confirm this. Industry sources said a deal to sell half of the shares held by the government was already signed Tuesday. The other half will be signed Wednesday, they said. But an official announcement released by the finance department on Tuesday afternoon said that the formal turnover will be held Wednesday at 5 p.m., at the Land Bank office in Robinsons Summit Center in Makati City. First Pacific still has until February 1 to match the offer of Parallax Venture Fund, which made a bid of P25.2 billion for the government stake in PTIC. Apparently, the Hong Kong conglomerate has already exercised its right of first refusal even before the lapse of the 30-day deadline. The auction for the 6.4-percent PLDT stake is derived from the government’s 46-percent shareholding in the Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp. (PTIC), which in turn owns 13.8 percent of PLDT. The remaining 54 percent of PTIC is owned by Metro Pacific Asset Holdings and Larouge BV. The Sandiganbayan, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s decision in December last year, awarded to the government 111,415 PTIC shares, registered in the name of Prime Holdings Inc. (PHI), which owns a 46-percent stake in PTIC. First Pacific currently holds about 24.3 percent of the issued common share capital of PLDT. If the deal is completed Wednesday, First Pacific will have an attributable economic interest of approximately 27.5 percent of PLDT’s common share capital. First Pacific will fund the purchase of the PLDT stake from a $300-million loan it is seeking from a major financial institution. Manuel V. Pangilinan, First Pacific managing director, said earlier his group is financially capable to buy the entire indirect stake of the government. “If we have to, yes, we can.” First Pacific said earlier it and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc. would together match the offer from a private equity group for the government’s stake in PLDT. Recently, there had been reports that DoCoMo may back out from the planned partnership with First Pacific to buy the government’s stake in PLDT because opposition lawmakers are questioning the pricing at only P2,025 per share, almost 20 percent from the stock’s prevailing market price. Pangilinan’s group denied that NTT is backing out. PLDT board member and PTIC corporate secretary Ray Espinosa had said that “there are many investors” that would want to take the place of NTT DoCoMo. “NTT is not backing out, although there are many investors out there aside from DoCoMo,” he said. If the team-up between First Pacific and DoCoMo pushes through, the former will end up owning 27.5 percent of PLDT while DoCoMo’s stake will increase to 9.9 percent. DoCoMo, in an earlier statement, said it is interested to buy an additional 3.2-percent stake in PLDT for P13 billion, or about ¥30 billion. |
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