The regulatory decision about the acquisition of Digital Telecommunications Philippines (Digitel) by Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) will likely be delayed.
Philippine financial publication BusinessWorld reported that telecoms regulator NTC is…
The regulatory decision about the acquisition of Digital Telecommunications Philippines (Digitel) by Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) will likely be delayed.
Philippine financial publication BusinessWorld reported that telecoms regulator NTC is expected to fail to meet the 30 July deadline. The article refers to the head of NTC, Gamaliel A. Cordoba, who is quoted saying that the agency would “most likely” need extra time.
Initially, PLDT had planned to close the deal by the end of June, but had pushed back the closing date once already to 30 July to give the regulator more time to examine the proposed transaction.
According to the report the NTC is still waiting for submissions by the merging parties as well as third parties, which are due on Wednesday (27 July). The NTC would need to take these into account before deciding on the transaction.
PLDT plans to pay PHP 69.2 billion (US$ 1.64 billion) for a 51.55% stake in Digitel held by JG Summit Holdings’. After the transaction the merged company would reportedly control around 70% of the local mobile market.
