P6.75-B Sky Cable sale deal aborted

PLDT first announced its plan to acquire Sky in 2020, but the company immediately withdrew its bid due to the ‘risk of possible divestment’ that may arise because of the provisions of the Bayanihan To Recover As One Act or Bayanihan II back then

PLDT Inc.’s P6.75-billion acquisition of Sky Cable Corp., the broadband business of the Lopez family, a transaction that was years in the making, is no longer pushing through for undisclosed reasons.

PLDT and ABS-CBN Corp., the majority owner of the broadband firm, confirmed through separate stock exchange disclosures on Thursday that they mutually terminated the transaction.

This was even after the sale received the approval of the Philippine Competition Commission.

After the recent development, Sky Cable gave assurance to its customers that it could maintain their cable TV subscriptions.

Additionally, Sky’s internet broadband service, SKYFiber, remains unaffected.

PLDT entered into a Sale and Purchase agreement with Skyowners — Vision Corp., ABS-CBN and Lopez Inc. — in March last year, which covered the acquisition of Sky’s total issued and outstanding capital stock composed of 1.38 billion common shares.

Addressing divide

For PLDT, the deal was supposed to help “narrow the digital divide” by expanding its broadband connectivity.

As for ABS-CBN, the proceeds of the transaction would help finance its obligations.

PLDT first announced its plan to acquire Sky in 2020, but the company immediately withdrew its bid due to the “risk of possible divestment” that may arise because of the provisions of the Bayanihan To Recover As One Act or Bayanihan II back then.

The Bayanihan II, which was signed by former President Rodrigo R. Duterte in September 2020, exempted mergers and acquisitions from compulsory notification “with a transaction value of less than P50 billion which are entered into within two years” from the effectivity of the law.

In 2022, PLDT’s Cignal TV made another effort to acquire 38.88 percent of Sky Cable for P2.86 billion.

However, it was canceled due to external political pressures, with the cancellation of a significant deal between ABS-CBN and TV5, which aimed to merge their respective media resources.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BSP Stability paper launched Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor and Financial Stability Coordination Council, or FSCC, chairperson Eli Remolona Jr. (third from left) led the launch of the 2023 Financial Stability Report at the BSP head office in Manila on 13 February. With Remolona are members of the FSCC executive committee (from left) Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner Kelvin Lester Lee, Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. president Roberto Tan, Remolona, SEC chairperson Emilio Aquino, PDIC senior vice-president Sandra Diaz and FSCC technical secretariat head and BSP senior assistant governor Johnny Noe Ravalo.