Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) will drop its acquisition of a 51.55 percent stake in Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel) if the National Telecommunications Commission fails to approve the deal by August 26, according to its chairman.
"Kung wala pang mangyari siguro we will just call it a day na lang. Matagal na. We will just move on and Digitel can move on and all of this hullabaloo will just die down," said Manuel V. Pangilinan.
Pangilinan said, however, that he could not speak for J. G. Summing Holdings Inc., the seller.
PLDT and JG Summit have extended until the end of this month the closing date for the P69.2 billion transaction. The original date was June 30.
PLDT struck the deal with J.G. Summit in March.
"I’m just reflecting my view, I can’t speak for JG Summit, but yun lang ang personal feeling ko na siguro masyado nang napakaraming gusot at napakasalimuot na ito. Look, kung hindi pwede hindi pwede. Let’s move on," Pangilinan said.
He added that both PLDT and Digitel will not collapse if the transaction will not push through.
Pangilinan also said that it is the prerogative of J.G. Summit if it wishes to sell Digitel to another telecom company.
Digitel, No. 3 in the industry, earlier said second-ranked Globe Telecom offered to buy a majority stake in the company.
Pangilinan had said that the regulatory process, which started in early April, has taken longer than the company had expected.
PLDT said the transaction is not anti-competition nor is it in violation of any existing law or regulation so as to warrant the disapproval or imposition of additional conditions.
"The transaction is not anti-consumer precisely because it responds to the country’s urgent need for a robust nationwide broadband infrastructure and enhanced yet affordable consumer services." it said.
Once the transaction is approved, Digitel and PLDT will be more cost-efficient via capex optimization, co-location of base station, rationalization of overlapping technical system, bulk purchasing of network equipment, communications devices and other material, PLDT said.
It said the acquisition will increase the capability and better position both PLDT and Digitel to provide higher quality and even more affordable services to fixed line, wireless, and broadband subscribers – from voice to SMS, data, Internet and video services.
Besides Globe, Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc., Sealand Telecommunications Inc. and consumer groups TXTPower and TXTMate oppose the PLDT-Digitel deal because they said it could hurt competition and the consumers.
Source: abs-cbnNEWS.com
Posted at 08/18/2011 6:27 PM
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