INTERNET service provider Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc. is withholding its plan of delisting its common shares from the local bourse despite San Miguel Corp.’s buyout exercise.
Liberty Telecoms President Bienvenido N. Bañas informed the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday that his company has not passed any resolution on the voluntary delisting of its shares, as public float remains above the minimum level requirement despite the tender offer launched by Vega Telecom Inc. last quarter.
“The company’s board of directors has not passed any resolution pertaining to the voluntary delisting of Liberty common shares considering that the public ownership of the company remains within the minimum public ownership requirement of the exchange,” he said.
Vega, a wholly owned subsidiary of San Miguel Corp., acquired in July a total of 57.27 million shares, or 4.43 percent of Liberty’s outstanding common shares.
“The company, likewise, reports that it has not received any advice from Vega on the possible conversion of its advances into common equity, which may result in the percentage of public ownership falling below the minimum requirement of the exchange,” Bañas noted.
He said his group will make necessary disclosures in the event that the board of directors passes a resolution to apply for voluntary delisting or in the event that the percentage of public ownership would fall below the minimum required as a consequence of the conversion by Vega of its advances into common equity.
The local bourse requires a 10-percent minimum public float to remain listed.
Liberty recently made an early exit from its corporate rehabilitation, allowing it to move forward and “consider business opportunities.”
The company gets its revenues from offering Internet services through wi-Tribe Telecoms Inc., which services key cities and provinces in and around Metro Manila. There are about 50,000 wi-Tribe subscribers around the Philippines.
San Miguel is moving to consolidate its telecommunications businesses, planning to launch mobile services by 2016 through its units.
It plans to partner with Australia’s Telstra Corp. Ltd. to launch a third mobile player in the hotly contested, duopolistic Filipino telecommunications market. Liberty trimmed its losses in the first half of the year as a decline in expenses cushioned its falling revenues. Net loss stood at P432.95 million in the first semester of 2015, narrowing the losses by 22.23 percent from P556.77 million.
The firm’s revenues plunged by 4.46 percent to P144.69 million in the first six months of the year from P151.44 million in the same period in 2014. Its service revenues stood at P74.75 million, down from P148.07 million.
But the plummeting top line was tempered by the reduction in the firm’s expenses.
Its expenditures stood at P559.05 million in the January to June period of 2015, down by 10.25 percent from last year’s P622.92 million.
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