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By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
BAYAN Telecommunications Inc. (BayanTel)
said Thursday that its mandated plan to sell shares to the public
will not happen in two years.
“It is difficult at the moment.
That won’t happen in the next 12 to 24 months. An IPO [initial
public offering] will become a reality after we are able to post
continuous profits. Right now, we are concentrating on the
company’s continued growth in our data business,” Tunde Fafunwa,
BayanTel chief consultant, said.
According to the Securities and
Exchange Commission, a company must have been profitable immediately
for the preceding three years before it can undertake an IPO.
The Lopez family-led telecom
company is under a rehabilitation program aimed at settling its
obligations to creditors.
BayanTel’s total debts amounted
to about $477 million. Of this, $277 million is owed to banks and
about $200 million to bondholders or those holding onto debt papers
the telco earlier issued.
Among its creditors are the
Development Bank of the Philippines, the United Coconut Planters
Bank and the Land Bank of the Philippines.
BayanTel stopped making interest
payments to these creditors in 2001 owing to recurring losses,
forcing the company to seek rehabilitation.
In the first nine months of last
year, BayanTel posted a net income of P1.007 billion a turnaround
from losses of P1.04 billion in the same period in 2005.
The telco attributed its
turnaround to the improving peso, declining expenses and stronger
revenues from its data business.
The company is setting aside P1.5
billion in capital expenditures to be funded through internally
generated cash.
“Basically, a chunk of the
budget will go to our Span and DSL [digital subscriber line]
services,” Fafunwa said.
Fafunwa said the bulk of the
capex will be allotted for the installation of more base stations to
expand coverage and support the growth of the company’s wireless
local loop.
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