Philippine telco PLDT has said that it is in talks with the country’s telecoms regulator to divest spectrum from one of its subsidiaries in order to complete its acquisition of a majority stake in fixed-line operator Digitel.
In a statement to the…
Philippine telco PLDT has said that it is in talks with the country’s telecoms regulator to divest spectrum from one of its subsidiaries in order to complete its acquisition of a majority stake in fixed-line operator Digitel.
In a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), PLDT’s corporate secretary said that in order to pave the way for it to complete the Digitel acquisition, it was in talks with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) regarding the possibility of divesting spectrum held by Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprises, Inc (CURE).
This company is a subsidiary of Smart Communications, which in turn is a subsidiary of PLDT.
The company secretary, Ma. Lourdes C. Rausa-Chan, said that the company’s position was that all the frequencies it currently holds are being “properly, effectively and efficiently used”, and that “there is no legal basis” to recall any of these frequencies.
But she added that the company is cognisant of concerns from the government and some other parties regarding PLDT’s ownership of 3G spectrum.
She said that PLDT “would like to assure all parties that it is not PLDT’s intention to accumulate the said frequency”.
The Philippine authorities auctioned five licences for 3G licences in the 2,100 MHz band in 2005, of which only four were assigned.
PLDT acquired one of these licences. When it acquired CURE, it gained control of another of the licences. If it acquires Digitel, it would acquire another licence, meaning it had control of three out of the four licences.
The other licence is held by its competitor, Globe Telecom.
A PLDT spokeswoman said that both PLDT and the owner of the Digitel stake, JG Summit, are awaiting the decision of the regulator, and that neither company has given a specific deadline for the deal to be completed.
But she added that the regulator had indicated that a decision was likely to come out within ninety days of the last regulatory hearing. As this last hearing took place on 27 July, this suggests that the decision is likely to come before 27 October.
In March, PLDT said that it would be acquiring JG Summit’s 51.55% stake in Digitel for PhP74.1bn (US$1.7bn).
The deal had initially been scheduled for completion by 30 June, but this was subsequently pushed back to 30 July and then to 26 August due to antitrust concerns.
In late August, Telecom Finance reported that PLDT was in talks with JG Summit about potentially extending the deadline for the completion of the deal.
