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IT looks
like the country’s telecoms giant is still looking for
ways to get out of the cable-television business.
The
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is still
considering on letting go its interest in Beyond Cable
Holdings Inc., the merged entity of Sky Cable and Home
Cable.
PLDT
chairman Manuel Pangilinan told reporters the other day
that MediaQuest Holdings Corp., the beneficial trust
fund of PLDT, is a minority shareholder in Beyond Cable.
“We are down to 16 percent so we are minority. Frankly,
we would rather sell,” said Pangilinan.
He did
not say if the phone giant is already involved in any
ongoing talks with potential buyers, including the Lopez
group which has controlling interest in Beyond Cable.
Two
years ago, PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno made the
same comment. “If somebody will buy it then we will sell
it,” he said, adding that if the Lopez group wants to
acquire Home Cable Inc.’s stake in Beyond Cable then
PLDT will carefully consider it.
Nazareno
had said that “it makes sense” for PLDT to let go of
Home Cable because the debts of the cable firms are
still being restructured. “It is also not earning.
Besides, they are now running the show. We are not part
of it,” added the PLDT official.
In 2004,
Beyond Cable signed a debt-restructuring agreement with
creditors giving the cable operators seven years to pay
for debts amounting to P2.5 billion. The signing was
prompted by an earlier equity infusion of $30 million
from ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.
Among
the creditors that signed the agreement are: Asia United
Bank, Asia United Bank-Trust, Chinatrust (Phils.)
Commercial Bank Corp., Development Bank of the
Philippines, Bank of the Philippine Islands, EastWest
Banking Corp., International Commercial Bank of China,
Keppel Bank Philippines, Inc., Metropolitan Bank and
Trust Co., Bangkok Bank, China Banking Corp., Equitable
PCI Bank, Amalgamated Investment Bancorp and PCI Capital
Corp. SkyCable accounted for P1.17 billion of the total
debt that was restructured and P1.35 billion for Home
Cable.
Last
March, ABS-CBN signed an agreement with SkyCable to
extend the maturity of the latter’s debt to the
broadcast firm. SkyCable, formerly Central CATV Inc.,
executed a second amendment to the facility agreement
with ABS-CBN and other lenders of SkyCable who hold more
than 67 percent of the outstanding loan.
The
second amendment, among others, extends the loan
maturity from 2010 to 2016.
ABS-CBN
had purchased the bulk of SkyCable’s debt amounting to
P1.8 billion from creditors via cash payment and fresh
borrowing. The amount purchased is about 67 percent of
the total outstanding principal amount of P2.74 billion
when the invitation to Sky Cable’s creditors was made.
The
company offered two options for the retirement of
SkyCable’s outstanding obligations. The first involves
ABS-CBN buying the cable TV operator’s debt at a
30-percent discount, while the second entails swapping
SkyCable’s IOUs with those of the broadcast giant.
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