Exit option for Liberty owners a go

A buyout offer to minority shareholders of Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc. remained on the table despite recent legal entanglements between acquiring firms PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom and the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC).

Globe general counsel Froilan Castelo said in a text message Monday the company was still “studying” when the voluntary tender offer would exactly be launched.

Just last June, Globe and PLDT said the tender offer could happen by the third quarter of the year, and that the plan was for Liberty to be delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange before the end of 2016.

Castelo declined to give additional details, but implied the original timing could be revised due to recent developments in court.

Liberty is the only listed company among the various telecommunications units of Vega Telecom, the holding company that conglomerate San Miguel Corp. sold to PLDT and Globe last May 30 for P69.1 billion.

That deal came under scrutiny from the newly-formed PCC, which wanted to review the transaction for possibly violating the one-year-old Philippine Competition Law.

Globe and PLDT said the deal deserved automatic approval, citing the PCC’s transitory rules. The issue escalated swiftly, with both telcos running to the Court of Appeals on July 12 in a bid to block the review.

A division of the appellate court denied Globe’s request for a halt order, while a similar petition filed by PLDT was still pending. Globe thereafter sought to consolidate its petition with the one filed by PLDT.

PLDT and Globe earlier announced that Vega, which they now equally own, would be the entity to be used for the tender offer. At the time, the companies said a fairness opinion would be sought to determine the tender offer price.

Liberty has a public float of 12.82 percent. The company’s share price jumped to a high of P5.05 last May 30, when the acquisition of Vega was announced, but it has since declined about 40 percent due to uncertainties surrounding the transaction.

A tender offer is a mechanism designed to protect minority shareholders in an event like a buyout of a company. Specifically, it gives a minority shareholder the option to exit at the same price as the major selling parties.