Payphone kid A child uses a public payphone installed on a street in Manila. The government tried to put up a similar system in the countryside, but the scheme did not succeed. Business groups say a new project by the Department of Transportation and Communications with a Chinese firm would likely suffer the same fate. --NONIE REYES

PHILIPPINE Global Communications Inc., or Philcom, the telecom arm of listed holding firm APC Group Inc., is planning to go public once its sale possibly to the country’s biggest carrier is finalized in the third quarter.

In an interview, a company source said APC is now in serious negotiations with Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and a number of creditor-banks for the sale of the debt-saddled Philcom.

If talks bear positive results, Philcom’s new owner will assume its debts amounting to P5 billion.

“Philcom’s main goal is to really wipe out its deficit and prepare for the eventual public offering,” the source said.

At this point, he said, two options are being considered to implement the sale of Philcom. First is for PLDT to have controlling stake of Philcom, or for PLDT together with the creditor-banks to take control of Philcom.

“APC is willing to be diluted in terms of ownership in Philcom to give way for the new owners,” he said. Philcom, at present, is 99-percent owned by APC.

PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan earlier admitted his company was in discussions with Philcom for a possible acquisition.

Once talks with the buyer are finalized, APC would seek the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission to write off Philcom’s debts off APC books and reinstate its financial statement to reflect a healthier balance sheet.

Philcom owns and operates, Philcom Corp., a local exchange with a mega franchise in northeastern and central Mindanao. It has around 27,000 subscribers, to date.

Last year, the company continued to suffer from lower revenues from international traffic due declining settlement rates. The oversupply of bandwidth capacity and the gaining popularity of voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP, resulted in the continuing decrease in settlement rates from foreign carriers. However, the revenue slide in voice traffic was cushioned by the improvement of revenue on data service business.

The company’s loss for 2006 amounted to P742.6 million, lower than the 2005 restated loss of P881.7 million.

Philcom was almost acquired by the Fiber Telecoms Group but the latter withdrew its bid.

PHILIPPINE Global Communications Inc., or Philcom, the telecom arm of listed holding firm APC Group Inc., is planning to go public once its sale possibly to the country’s biggest carrier is finalized in the third quarter.

Manila Water Co. signs €60-M loan European lender

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THE board of directors of the National Reinsurance Corp. of the Philippines, or PhilNaRe, has revoked an earlier decision to declare a 7-percent stock dividend amounting to P152.7 million.

THE Henry Sy-controlled Highlands Prime Inc. is preparing a masterplan for the development of a 700-hectare property in Tagaytay before the end of the year.

AMID lingering questions on the alleged sale of majority shares of Philippine Bank of Communications, or PBCom, to a newspaper publisher, bank stockholders late Tuesday elected a new set of directors.