Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) will on 7 December 2011 launch a tender offer to buy the remaining 48.45% it does not already own in number three player Digitel.
On 26 October, PLDT completed its acquisition of a 51.55% stake in Digitel…
Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) will on 7 December 2011 launch a tender offer to buy the remaining 48.45% it does not already own in number three player Digitel.
On 26 October, PLDT completed its acquisition of a 51.55% stake in Digitel for PhP69.2bn (US$1.6bn). The deal was conducted via a share swap with JG Summit, the then majority shareholder of Digitel.
PLDT is looking to acquire the remaining stake by either offering PhP1.6033 (US$0.03) for each share or by swapping one PLDT share for every 1,559.28 Digitel shares held.
The offer is scheduled to close on 9 January 2012.
In early November, PLDT confirmed to TelecomFinance that the company was considering delisting Digitel if it succeeded in taking full control of it.
Under Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) rules, companies can voluntary delist if 95% of outstanding shares are held by a majority shareholder, the company pointed out.
It also said that PSE, after a grace period, will delist the company if the minimum public float is less than 10%.
Separately, PLDT said on 6 December that its board approved a decision to convert all the 2013 and 2014 bonds issued by Digitel and held by PLDT into Digitel common shares.
The 2013 convertible bonds have a redemption value of US$25m while the 2014 exchangeable bonds have a value of approximately US$67m.
The bond conversion is linked to PLDT’s decision to subscribe to 4 billion new shares of Digitel at PhP1 (US$0.023) each, or PhP4bn (US$92m) in total.
This comes after it was announced that Digitel’s authorised capital would be increased from PhP9bn (US$207m) to PhP25bn (US$575m) divided into 25 billion shares, each with a par value of PhP1.
