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NTT DoCoMo Inc. annouced on Tuesday that it raised its stake in
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. in a bid to expand its
business opportunities in the country’s largest telephone company.
In a statement posted on its website, NTT DoCoMo
said that from March last year through January 22 this year it
raised its stake in PLDT to 13.34 percent of the outstanding common
stock of the Philippine telco.
During this period, DoCoMo said it acquired
12,532,214 additional shares of common stock, or 6.64 percent, for
$760 million.
The combined holdings of DoCoMo and sister firm
NTT Communications Corp. stand at 20.03 percent of the outstanding
common stock of PLDT.
The Japanese telco said the increase is aimed at
enhancing PLDT’s business development in the Philippines by making
it an affiliated company of DoCoMo and enhance international roaming
services between Japan and the Philippines.
“The increased stake also enables DoCoMo to
book the investment using the equity method and reclassify PLDT as
an affiliate,” the Japanese telco said.
Working with Smart Communications Inc., DoCoMo
said it intends to develop mutually beneficial technologies and
services, including international roaming between Japan and the
Philippines.
Smart is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PLDT.
Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT chairman had said
that the company is in talks with NTT DoCoMo for a partnership in
offering various telecom services for Filipino seafarers off Japan.
Pangilinan said NTT DoCoMo is interested in the
service offered by Blue Ocean Wireless and Inmarsat. Blue Ocean
Wireless provides the world’s first global system for mobile
communication (GSM) network across the seas through Altobridge, a
patented GSM platform that supports full voice and text services.
If they [NTT DoCoMo] can help us in Japan to
install base stations on the Japanese vessels, they can introduce us
to the various shipping companies Many Filipino seamen are working
in Japan,” Pangilinan earlier said.
PLDT, which is partly owned by Hong Kong’s
First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan’s NTT group said net income stood
at P9.51 billion in the third quarter, down by 9 percent compared
with the P10.44 billion in the same period in 2006.
For the period ending September, PLDT’s net
income slightly grew by 3 percent to P26.5 billion owing to lower
additional depreciation charges offset by an increase in provision
for taxes of P10 billion.
The company’s consolidated core net income
rose 13 percent to P26.2 billion during the period from P23.2
billion in 2006.
-- Darwin G. Amojelar
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