Dito CME secures P3.3B from most recent investor

Ernesto Alberto—CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA  -Dito CME Holdings has received P3.3 billion from a subscription agreement with a local company, the latest development in a slew of capital-raising activities to build up its war chest for expansion.

On Monday, the listed company owned by Davao-based business Dennis Uy said it had issued 3.3 billion common shares to Summit Telco Holdings Corp. for P1 apiece. The selling price is 66 percent cheaper than its closing price of P2.98 on Monday.

The investor’s parent company based in Singapore, Summit Telco Corp. Pte. Ltd., had purchased 1.59 billion common shares for P1 each from DITO in August.

Another Singaporean company, Xterra Ventures Pte. Ltd., also acquired 610 million DITO common shares for P1 apiece around the same time.

On the debt side, the listed company secured a $3.9-billion project finance facility last month. About $1.3 billion will go to payments for short-term bridge loans.

Ernesto Alberto, the parent company’s previous president and who is now the CEO of DITO Telecommunity (DITO Tel), previously stressed the need to firm up financing in a capital-intensive telecommunications industry.

This year, DITO Tel is targeting to release a product offering for enterprise clients, in addition to beefing up 5G and mobile postpaid products.

The initiatives were in line with a goal of growing subscribers up to 10 million this year, which it said would be driven by the prepaid segment. After the July 25 deadline and five-day grace period for the SIM card registration, DITO saw 51.72 percent or 7.74 million cards out of 14.96 million registered.

In addition, DITO is keen on increasing within the year its average revenue per user to P125 from the current P107 with the launch of new products.

The telco recently passed the fourth technical audit by the National Telecommunications Commission after surpassing the minimum requirement of 80.01-percent population coverage and internet speed of 55 megabits per second. INQ