PLDT, JG Summit agree on closing date of July 30

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and JG Summit Holdings Inc. have agreed to extend the closing date of their sale and purchase agreement by a month, or until July 30, 2011.

“The parties remain committed to this deal since it stands to bring substantial benefits not only to the shareholders but also to the consumers and the general public who will all benefit from the combined resources and expertise of the PLDT Group and Digitel. In the end, this means higher quality services being made available to a wider market at affordable prices,” PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.

For his part, JG Summit chairman James Go expressed confidence that soon, Sun Cellular users will reap the benefits of a stronger and more robust telecommunications company resulting from the PLDT-Digitel deal.

PLDT and Digitel are still awaiting approval from the National Telecommunications (NTC) on their application for the transfer of the JG Summit Group’s 51-percent stake in Digitel to PLDT, as well as approvals from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on the issuance of new PLDT shares as payment for the transaction.

PLDT shareholders earlier gave their imprimatur to the acquisition of Digitel. The shareholders, in particular, approved the issuance of up to 29.65 million PLDT common shares priced at P2,500 per share as payment for 3.28 billion Digitel common shares owned by JG Summit representing around 51 percent of total, zero coupon bonds issued by Digitel convertible into 18.6 billion Digitel shares with a redemption value of P17.7 billion, P34.1 billion in advances made by JG Summit to Digitel, and the remaining 3.08 billion Digitel shares held by public shareholders to be acquired in a tender offer.

Of the 29.7 million new shares to be issued, 16 million will be issued in exchange for existing Digitel shares and the equivalent Digitel shares due to convertible bond holders. The balance of 13.6 million will be in exchange for the JG Summit advances.

The total value of the PLDT-Digitel transaction is P74.1 billion.

With the issuance of new PLDT new shares to Digitel, JG Summit will own 12.75 percent of PLDT while the equity ownership of the First Pacific Group will be reduced to 22.85 percent from 26.59 percent. That of Japan’s NTT Group, meanwhile, will go down to 18.2 percent from 21.09 percent.