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WITH
Indonesian-owned First Pacific Group and NTT Group of
Japan already on board with their ownership of common
voting shares, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. as
it is has already become a foreign-controlled
telecommunication company.
Now
comes another foreigner, whose nationality was marked
only N/A, or “not available” in its filing. It will soon
join the Filipino nominees of First Pacific and NTT’s
Japanese representatives in PLDT’s 12-man board.
The
newcomer, Capital Research and Management Co., will be
entitled to a board seat with its recent acquisition of
14,575,690 PLDT shares, or 7.7 percent of outstanding
shares.
Based on
the transactions at the Philippine Stock Exchange, the
acquired shares had market value of P41,103,445,800 at
30-day high of P2,820 per share.
PLDT
closed on Tuesday at P2,485, the day’s low, that would
give Capital Research’s PLDT shares P36,220,589,650
market value.
Capital
Research, incorporated in
Delaware,
reported its PLDT holdings in a filing posted February
12, 2007 on the website of the New York Stock Exchange.
It did not disclose the price of its acquisition.
The
website of the Philippine Stock Exchange did not have
the same filing.
Capital
Research said that as an investment adviser to various
investment companies, it is “deemed to be the beneficial
owner” of said PLDT shares, which are “equivalent to 7.7
percent of 188,454,895 outstanding common shares.”
Capital
Research also told NYSE and the US Securities and
Exchange Commission that the PLDT shares it holds
include 2,636,940 American Depositary shares.
Paul G.
Haaga, signed the disclosure as president of Capital
Research.
Alien control
Foreigners have long been the majority owners of PLDT’s
outstanding common shares totaling 188,434,695 as of
December 31, 2006.
In a
filing, PLDT said PCD Nominee Corp. holds 72,048,537
shares, or 38.24 percent, consisting of 56,951,455
foreign-owned shares, or 30.223 percent and 15,097,082
Filipino-owned shares, or 8.011 percent.
PCD
Nominee is a subsidiary of Philippine Depository Corp.
It holds the shares for investors who trade through PSE
trading participants or stockbrokers.
The list
also showed J. P. Morgan Asset Holdings (HK) Ltd. with
36,901,091 shares, or 19.58 percent. JP Morgan holds
PLDT shares as trustee bank of some foreign
stockholders.
First
Pacific Co. Ltd. of
Hong Kong is PLDT’s biggest stockholder. It claims over 24 percent voting interest
through its subsidiaries.
The
ownership of the Indonesian-owned conglomerate could
still increase if it succeeds in raising P25.2 billion
to match the bid of a Singaporean company for a
46-percent stake in Philippine Telecommunication
Investment Corp.
PTIC
owns 26,034,263 PLDT shares, equivalent to 13.82
percent.
NTT
Communications Corp. and NTT DoCoMo Inc. of Japan
combine for 25,26,973 shares, or 13.40 percent.
Social
Security System and the Yuchengco group are PLDT’s only
remaining Filipino stockholders with significant
holdings.
PLDT’s
report showed SSS directly owns 5,024,789 shares and
7,100,220 shares which are lodged with PCD. The two
blocks represent 6.434 percent of outstanding common
shares.
Three
Yuchengco-owned companies are among PLDT’s top 100
stockholders. These are Great Pacific Life Assurance
Corp., with 726,374 shares, and Pan-Malayan Management &
Investment Corp., 466,400 shares; and Malayan Insurance
Co. Inc., 460,566 shares.
*****
THE
Philippine government may sign on Wednesday an agreement
to sell its indirect stake in Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Co., Finance Secretary Gary Teves said.
First
Pacific, in a statement to the
Hong Kong stock exchange Tuesday, said it intends to sign a
“conditional sale and purchase agreement’” with the
government on the 6.4-percent stake in PLDT not later
than February 28. The agreement will be subject to the
approval of First Pacific shareholders who will meet by
the end of the month, it said.
“There’s
a scheduled signing tomorrow that’s still tentative,”
Teves told reporters in Manila today. (Bloomberg)
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