ONCE again defying seers’ forecast, MediaQuest Holdings Inc., an investee company of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Beneficial Trust Fund, is pushing through with its investment in the company that publishes The Philippine Star. Company officials, however, no longer want to state a timetable for the acquisition following the lapse of the July target closing date for the transaction.

MediaQuest director Ray Espinosa, in a text message, said the acquisition will be “concluded as early as practicable,” adding that “print investment is part of multimedia strategy of MediaQuest.”

The PLDT unit has pending discussion to purchase 87.5 percent of the broadsheet for P4 billion. Negotiations were supposed to be finalized in July, but the target date for the acquisition was not achieved. “I keep on saying the timetable, but it does not happen. Probably, I’ll be quiet and just announce it when it’s done,” said PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan.

The telecom executive himself has about 10-percent interest in the newspaper. For this transaction, it will be MediaQuest that will acquire the Philippine Star and not PLDT, as Philippine law prohibits foreign ownership in Philippine media. PLDT is owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan’s NTT Communications and NTT DoCoMo.

Espinosa said discussions are ongoing and that the deal will definitely push through. “We are currently in discussions with PhilStar owners regarding the structure, extent and pricing of MediaQuest’s investment,” he said.

MediaQuest is the PLDT group’s vehicle for media-related investments. The firm holds a 30-percent stake in BusinessWorld Publishing Corp.; 51-percent interest in Nation Broadcasting Corp.; and 33.5 percent in SkyCable Corp. It also acquired in July 2007 licensed DTH firm GV Broadcasting Systems Inc., which later changed its name to MediaScape Inc.

The Philippine Star is majority owned by the Belmonte family. Pangilinan had said, “[The Belmontes] will still run the paper.”

MediaQuest’s latest acquisitions include a 75-percent stake in Associated Broadcasting Co. (ABC 5), the television network of former PLDT chairman Antonio “TonyBoy” Cojuangco; and Primedia Inc., the broadcasting firm’s block airtimer. The acquisition cost MediaQuest less than P5 billion, Pangilinan had said.

MediaQuest’s investments in ABC 5 and Primedia are in line with its strategy of developing media content and production resources to complement its other media assets and platforms, such as Cignal, a direct-to-home satellite service launched in July this year. By investing in both ABC 5 and Primedia, MediaQuest expects to further enhance the TV channel’s programming, ratings and sales, as well as improve the broadcast network’s coverage and signal strength throughout the country.