Globe close to sealing Bayantel acquisition deal

Ayala’s telco unit says it has cleared regulatory hurdles

GLOBE TELECOM of the Ayala Group expects to complete its takeover of Bayan Telecommunications Inc. within the year as it remains confident that it has cleared regulatory hurdles, its top official said last week.

Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said that the company was still in talks to acquire the additional shares held by the Lopez family— the original owners of Bayantel.

The National Telecommunica opposition tions Commission still has to approve Globe’s takeover of Bayantel.

“We expect to close the transaction within the year,” Cu told reporters last week.

Under the plan, Globe will acquire a 56.6- percent stake in Bayantel through the conversion of 69 percent of Bayantel’s total debt.

The Globe debt initiative will pare down the outstanding principal debt of Bayantel to $ 131.3 million from $ 423.3 million, the company earlier said. Bayantel’s outstanding debt stood at $ 497 million when it was placed under corporate rehabilitation in 2004.

It has reportedly settled a total of P8.19 billion in debt since it filed for supervised rehabilitation proceedings with the regional trial court in Pasig City. It told the court that it would pay its $ 325 million outstanding debt before 2023.

Cu said a key objective was to acquire more Bayantel shares once the NTC approves the takeover.

“The objective is to have as much of the shares and continue to control as much of the company as we can because that is the only way you can extract the synergies. I think part of what has been approved or trying to get approved is the control aspect,” Cu said.

The deal was complicated by the of chief rival Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., which called the deal anticompetitive and anticonsumer, an allegation Globe had denied.

PLDT unit Smart Communications at the time said that frequencies in question should have been recalled by NTC and auctioned off since these were not being used by Bayantel.

But the regulator allowed the sharing arrangement, saying this would ease network congestion and translate to better quality of service.