Thursday, July 05, 2007 HK firm wants to maintain majority in PLDT
WHILE it is working for the sale of some of its shares in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Hong Kong-based First Pacific Company still seeks to maintain the majority stake in the country’s biggest telecommunication firm.
“We need to keep the majority (stake in PLDT),” Manuel V. Pangilinan, First Pacific managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) told reporters.
Pangilinan, who is also PLDT chairman, said they are still negotiating with NTT Docomo Inc., one of PLDT’s largest share holders, regarding the shares. “We’re losing some shares so we have to recover some shares,” he added.
He said they are looking at selling less than 50 percent of their shares with NTT Docomo of Japan.
The original plan was to purchase the 6.4 percent shares of PTIC and split it between First Pacific and NTT Docomo but it did not work out and First Pacific decided to acquire the entire shares alone.
First Pacific recently acquired 6.4 percent of the 13.8 percent shares of PLDT held by the Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corporation (PTIC) and the shares are the one they intend to sell with NTT Docomo.
The 6.4 percent which First Pacific purchased has a current market value of P30 billion (P2,505/share), which is 19 percent or P4.85 billion higher than the P25.2 billion offer of First Pacific and NTT.
NTT Docomo together with NTT Communications Corporation has 13.4 percent of PLDT’s issued common share capital.
Pangilinan said they hope to close the deal with NTT Docomo this December. (MSN/Sunnex)
