Dito CME to sell shares in rights offering
Businessman Dennis A. Uy’s Dito CME Holdings Corp. is planning to sell shares to existing stockholders to meet the Philippine Stock Exchange’s minimum public ownership requirements.
Dito CME is in the midst of a corporate restructuring program that would allow it to gain control of telecommunications startup Dito Telecommunity, a venture with China Telecom.
Dito CME, previously called ISM Communications, said its board approved the share sale, also known as a rights offering, but provided no details.
“In addition, the board also approved to issue such number of shares out of its unissued capital stock, at the terms determined by management, to ensure compliance of the corporation’s minimum public ownership requirement under existing rules and regulations, subject to the approval of its increase in authorized capital stock by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),” it added.
Asset swap
On Aug. 17, Dito CME said a planned asset swap with Uy’s Udenna Corp. had been given “preclearance” by the SEC.
Under the share swap, Dito CME would gain 100 percent of Udenna Communications Media and Entertainment Holdings Corp., which owns control of Dito Telecommunity.
Thus, Dito CME would be gaining an indirect majority stake in Dito Telecommunity through several corporate layers.
The company previously announced that the share swap with Udenna Corp. would involve 11.2 billion shares of Dito CME priced at P6.11 each, valuing the entire transaction at P68.4 billion.
2M subscriber mark
Dito Telecommunity formally launched commercial services in Mindanao and Visayas last March 8 and reached Metro Manila in May.
Earlier this month, it announced that the two-million subscriber mark had been breached.
Dito Telecommunity was awarded the license to become the country’s newest major telecommunications player in 2019.
The conditions of the award included a five-year commitment period ending in 2024. During this time, Dito was required to reach 84 percent of the Philippine population and offer a minimum average internet speed of 55 megabits per second.
