Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) has extended its tender offer for all outstanding Digitel shares from 9 to 16 January, the company said in a stock exchange announcement.
Meanwhile shareholders have asked the Philippine stock exchange…
Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) has extended its tender offer for all outstanding Digitel shares from 9 to 16 January, the company said in a stock exchange announcement.
Meanwhile shareholders have asked the Philippine stock exchange regulator to order PLDT to dramatically improve the tender offer.
According to the tender, PLDT offers to pay PhP1.6033 (US$0.03) for each share.
Following the acquisition of a majority stake in Digitel, about 48.45% of the issued capital of Digitel is still outstanding. Alternatively to acquiring the outstanding shares, PLDT offers shareholders to swap one PLDT share for every 1,559.28 Digitel shares held.
The extended tender offer expires at noon, 16 January.
On 26 October, PLDT had 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.
Minority shareholders want PhP21.12 per share
In a separate announcement at the Philippine Stock Exchange published yesterday [5 January 2012], PLDT commented on a media report stating that Digitel minority shareholders are unhappy about the tender offer price. According to the article, quoted extensively in the announcement, the minority shareholders have complained to the SEC that the offer price was too low. Rather than offering PhP1.6033 per share, the SEC should order PLDT to pay PhP 21.12 (US$0.48).
PLDT said in the 5 January announcement that it has not received a copy of the complaint.
The company repeated earlier comments made by PLDT’s head of public affairs, Ramon S. lsberto, that “the tender offer price of P1 .6033 per share being made by PLDT to the minority shareholders of Digitel is the same price that was paid to JG Summit Holdings Inc. and other related parties (the “JG Summit Group”) which collectively owned a 51.55% equity stake in Digitel before the buyout.”
In early November, PLDT confirmed to TelecomFinance that the company was considering delisting Digitel if it succeeded in taking full control of the company.
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
