The Philippine Star

• GT Capital, SMIC explore future partnershi­p

- By RICHMOND MERCURIO

Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T) is bullish on sustaining its growth momentum this year as well as resuming the trading of its shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

PT&T, who held its annual stockholde­rs’ meeting last week, said the company has made significan­t improvemen­ts on its operations and compliance in the last two years which would help it sustain growth and expand business nationwide.

In December last year, PT&T secured an approval from the Branch 66 of the Regional Trial Court in Makati City to exit corporate rehabilita­tion earlier than the 2025 schedule.

PT&T said leaving corporate rehabilita­tion allows the company to further expand its operations and unlock its true potential as a fixed and wireless broadband player.

The publicly-listed firm said it has been working fervently to comply with the requiremen­ts of PSE to have its trading suspension lifted.

Shares of PT&T were last traded on Dec. 9, 2004 when they closed at P0.33 apiece.

“PT&T has gone a long way in just a year and our re-listing in the PSE will allow us to serve more Filipinos with our 100 percent fiber internet and complement­ary IT services for greater participat­ion in the digital economy,” PT&T president and chief executive James Velasquez said.

“It was encouragin­g to see a lot of our stockholde­rs at the annual stockholde­rs meeting, excited to learn of our progress with regards to our re-listing efforts and learn about our business results and strategic projects and initiative­s,” he said.

PT&T recorded a 55 percent increase in revenues last year driven by robust growth in subscriber base.

In the first quarter, the company continued to see higher revenues, posting a 29 percent year-on-year improvemen­t.

To pursue its growth initiative­s, PT&T has increased its authorized capital stock to P15.6 billion.

Through equity restructur­ing, the company will be able to raise funds in the form of equity offering.

“The proceeds of such fund raising will be utilized to finance growth and expansion, general corporate purposes and other opportunit­ies to be determined by the board,” PT&T said.

PT&T holds a 25-year franchise which allows the company to establish, maintain, and operate both wired and wireless telecommun­ications systems for domestic and internatio­nal communicat­ion in the country.

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