THE Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) expects to resume trading its 800 million common shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) this year, following its compliance with the requirements set by the regulators.
The company said it has already completed all the prerequisites needed for the lifting of its trading suspension by the local bourse.
Trading of PT&T shares was voluntarily deferred since December 13, 2004. They were last traded on December 9, 2004, closing at P0.33 per share.
When the new investors took over early last year, they expressed to the PSE their desire to resume trading.
Their goal is to beef up PT&T’s ability to raise fresh capital for its planned expansion of its current broadband and data business, and possibly as the third major telco player.
“Having fulfilled the requirements set by the PSE, PT&T should be allowed to resume trading and enact future plans of the new shareholders and management team,” said Miguel Bitanga, COO of PT&T.
“Whether from a perspective of compliance to the PSE or based on purely economic/market-driven benefits, there should be no reason why the company should be prevented from bringing the publicly traded shares into play again, and eventually raising capital to fund future plans, both within and outside of the fixed broadband space,” he added.
The continuation of the public offering is deemed beneficial to consumers, employees and creditors.
PT&T President and Chief Executive James G. Velasquez said the resumption of trading on the company’s shares would also boost PSE’s market capitalization by several billion pesos.
He said the volume traded is also something that would be beneficial to both the bourse and investing public.
The lifting of suspension, the top executive added, would allow the entry of new investors into PT&T for its bid to become the third telco player in the Philippine telecommunication industry.
Velasquez noted the firm has the underlying assets and existing business to support its shares, as well as competent management team and bullish growth prospect.
Denying their request to cancel the trading suspension would be detrimental to all creditors of PT&T, which recently secured approval from court to exit corporate rehabilitation, he said.
In August 2017, Menlo Capital Corp. (MCC) acquired significant interest in PT&T from Republic Telecommunications Holdings Inc.
MCC is co-owned by Nickel Asia Corp. Founder Salvador Zamora II and businessman Benjamin Bitanga.
Branch 66 of the Regional Trial Court in Makati City greenlighted on August 6 this year PT&T’s petition to be allowed to exit from rehabilitation subject to compliance with certain requirements in line with the court-approved Rehabilitation Plan.
Under this plan approved in 2011, the P8.8-billion debts from its creditors would be paid in redeemable serial preferred shares of PT&T.
For fiscal year ending June this year, PT&T reported a P37-billion net income from a net loss of P27 million in the same period last year.
Its net operating revenues amounted to P211 million for the 12 months ending June 30, 2018, or 55 percent higher than P136 million posted in the same period last year mainly due to additional clients.
PT&T holds a 25-year franchise, which allows the company to establish, maintain and operate both wired and wireless telecommunications systems for domestic and international communication in the Philippines.
Its existing, scalable network and infrastructure, spanning over 1,000 kilometers of pure fiber-optic cables, allow it to easily meet the network demands of customers in the Greater Manila Area, northern and southern Luzon and Cebu regions.
The company’s high-speed broadband service is available in the Greater Manila Area, Northern and Southern Luzon.