Voyager no longer pursuing partnership with Chinese tech giant

PLDT, Inc. said its unit Voyager Innovations, Inc. is no longer pursuing a strategic partnership with Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, Ltd., after talks did not materialize.

PLDT Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company did not receive any feedback from Tencent, who was being eyed as a strategic partner for Voyager.

Tencent is the tech giant behind messaging app WeChat and also has businesses in video streaming and mobile gaming.

“No news. We have not received any word from, one way or the other from Tencent.... We’re assuming at least for the moment that we will not have a strategic partner and we will proceed with our own plans with Voyager,” Mr. Pangilinan told reporters on May 10.

The PLDT official last year said the company was looking for a partner to “push the various thrusts of Voyager,” given that the company is a cash business and “capital-hungry.”

Mr. Pangilinan, however, remains confident and sees encouraging signs that Voyager can grow its base without a strategic partner given the increasing number of accounts and transactions.

Voyager targets to have 30 million users by 2020.

PLDT Chief Operating Officer Paola Azzola said last December that there are eight million users of PayMaya Philippines, Inc. and Smart Money. Other units under Voyager include FINTQ, Lendr, and freenet.

Last year, Chinese firm Ant Financial Services Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, entered into a strategic partnership with Globe Telecom, Inc.’s Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.) to accelerate digital payments.

Globe and Ant Financial have partnered to enable merchants in the Philippines to accept payment from both local users (using GCash) and Chinese visitors (using Alipay) via a connection to GCash QR Code solution.

Tencent has partnered last year with Asia United Bank for WeChat Pay in the Philippines to allow mobile payments from Chinese tourists. PLDT recorded a net income of P6.9 billion for the first quarter, excluding international business and Voyager. This was 39% higher than the P5 billion during the same period in 2017. Consolidated core income grew by 13% to P6.0 billion during the first three months of 2018 from P5.33 last year.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.