PT&T moves out of rehab, sets expansion

Listed Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) is moving on from rehabilitation as a Makati court deemed that all conditions to exit such have been satisfied.

The development marks a positive turn for PT&T, which suffered a setback last Nov. 7 after it was disqualified from the race to become the country’s third mobile player.

PT&T, a telco industry pioneer that was established in 1962, is reinventing itself into a digital services provider following the entry of new shareholders last year.

“PT&T now has the financial muscle to support the company’s existing operations as well as its promised multibillion-peso capital expenditure to roll out infrastructure over a five-year period to compete aggressively in the Philippines telecommunications industry,” the company said in a statement.

PT&T disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday that the Makati regional trial court denied cases filed by creditors seeking to derail an August 2018 court order that paved the way for its full exit from rehabilitation.

It said the same court also confirmed that it had “substantially complied” with the conditions to exit rehabilitation, which was approved in 2011.

“In view of the said substantial compliance, the Rehabilitation Court declared that PT&T is now out of rehabilitation and its exit is no longer conditional,” PT&T said.

PT&T earlier secured the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission to expand its capital and execute a debt-to-equity conversion. This helped cut total liabilities to P1.5 billion from P10 billion, with most of its debts being converted to preferred shares.

“This is indeed welcome news and a perfect Christmas gift. We have been waiting for this and it is in line with our growth aspirations and vision of turning PT&T into a digital services provider,” PT&T president and CEO James Velasquez said.