PLDT eyes new investor for data center arm, aborts talks with NTT

PLDT Inc. is no longer pursuing talks with Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) to sell up to 49 percent of its data center business, according to company chair Manuel V. Pangilinan.

Instead, the telecommunications giant is in talks with another foreign investor to sell a 49-percent stake in the business for over $1 billion. Pangilinan told reporters on Tuesday that NTT had wanted to buy 51 percent of ePLDT, but PLDT was willing to sell only 49 percent.

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“If we give up majority [ownership], then our revenues will drop by P6 billion,” he said.

PLDT is eyeing to sign a definitive agreement with the unnamed new investor this year and close the deal by 2025. Finalization of the deal was initially scheduled last month.

Pangilinan also admitted, however, that keeping 100 percent of the data center business “is not an altogether bad option” because of its growth potential.

“It’s making money. It’s crucial to the enterprise side of the business,” he added.

Earlier, Pangilinan explained that they planned to sell part of the business to pay an existing debt.

But he later argued that this was “a poor reason for doing it; you must sell it because you think it provides greater value by bringing a partner in.”

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“They should bring additional revenues and widen the scope of potential locators into our data center [business],” Pangilinan said.

Last month, PLDT doubled its data center capacity to 100 megawatts after launching its largest data center in Laguna to accommodate growing demand.

Data centers are considered vital facilities, as these house critical servers and networks amid the rapid shift to digitalization among companies.

The Vitro Sta. Rosa facility in Laguna, ePLDT’s 11th hub, has a capacity of 50 MW.

ePLDT president and CEO Victor Genuino previously said they had three more data centers undergoing the design phase, with one of these potentially having 100 MW in capacity.

PLDT’s enterprise business, which includes data centers, booked P24 billion in revenues in the first half of the year, up from P23.2 billion. —Meg J. Adonis