Gokongweis eye sale of PLDT stake

MANILA, Philippines—The Gokongwei group plans to sell the 2.8-percent stake it will receive from local telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. to NTT Docomo of Japan.

The Gokongweis’ JG Summit on Friday announced that it had given NTT Docomo the option to purchase 4.56 million common shares in PLDT for P2,500 a share, amounting to about P11.4 billion ($263 million), subject to the closing conditions.

PLDT will issue the new shares to JG Summit as part a P69.2-billion deal that will enable PLDT to gain controlling stake in Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc., the telecommunications unit of the Gokongwei group that operates the Sun Cellular network.

Under the agreement, JG Summit will receive a 12.8-percent stake in PLDT’s enlarged capital.

Once the deal with NTT Docomo is completed, JG Summit’s stake in PLDT will be reduced to 10 percent, entitling the Gokongwei group to a single board seat.

“The transaction will bring considerable value to JGS shareholders without relinquishing its participation in PLDT,” JG Summit said in its disclosure.

NTT Docomo, a leading telco company in Japan, will have the option to purchase the PLDT stock within 30 days from the day the new shares are listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

After acquiring a majority stake in Digitel, PLDT now controls 70 percent of the local telecommunications market.

“Significant cost efficiencies are envisaged from the transaction via capex optimization, colocation of base stations, consolidation of overlapping technical systems, implementation of shared services, bulk purchasing of network equipment, communication devices and other materials and elimination of other duplicated costs,” JG Summit reported.