Minority shareholders in Digitel Telecommunications Philippines Inc. are being given more time to tender their shares to the company’s new controlling group, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), a disclosure read Friday.
PLDT said it had gained the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval to extend its supposedly month-long tender offer for the 48.5 percent of Digitel’s shares still held by small investors.
“PLDT… has secured approval to extend the tender offer period until January 16,” the telecom firm told the local bourse.
“Accordingly, stockholders of Digitel have until 12 noon of January 16 to tender their Digitel shares to the bidder,” the company said.
The original deadline for Digitel shareholders to have their holdings exchanged to cash or PLDT stock—the other mode of payment chosen by the latter—was next Monday.
PLDT hopes to acquire all of the 3.079 million shares in Digitel held by minority shareholders. At its tender offer price of P1.6033, which was the same price paid by PLDT to Digitel’s original owner JG Summit Holdings, the shares are worth a total of P4.9 billion.
The extension of the deadline also comes amid a complaint by a group of Digitel shareholders, who are accusing PLDT of trying to shortchange investors.
Dioceldo Sy, Edmund Sia, Gary Lim and Arsenio Tan, in a joint complaint, said PLDT should be acquiring Digitel shares at P21.12 each.
Their computation, however, assumes that the initial P69.1 billion shelled out by PLDT went only to pay for shares in Digitel.
PLDT’s payment, which was in the form of PLDT shares at P2,500 each, included the purchase of Digitel liabilities held by JG Summit.
These were in the form of convertible bonds worth P29.8 billion and inter-company advances worth P34.1 billion, representing the money poured in by JG Summit to the bleeding telco.
Although terms of the transaction have been clear from the start, the four shareholders are demanding that they get paid more what JG Summit itself received. At its own computation of P21.12 per share, PLDT would end up paying P65.05 billion.