PLDT announced last April 19 that it will be selling about half of its cellular towers to two Malaysian companies that are worth PHP 77 Billion.
The company will sell 2,973 towers and other related passive assets to a unit of Edotco Group and 2,934 towers to a unit of EdgePoint which represents half of PLDT’s telecom towers. The towers will be leased for 10 years by PLDT as the main tenant and will be concluding the transactions by Q4 this year.
“We expect to reap benefits in terms of a valuation uplift and capital reallocation, with PLDT applying the proceeds to deleverage, further invest in the network and return cash to shareholders via a special dividend,”
Manuel Pangilinan PLDT Chairman
Lagging behind its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of tower density, The Philippines pushed for tower-sharing arrangements to help supplement the local telecom services and cut expansion costs across the archipelago.
Across nine countries in Asia, Edotco Group, which is majority-owned by Axiata group, manages over 54,000 towers. Meanwhile, Edgepoint owns about 10,000 towers in Indonesia and Malaysia.
The aforementioned companies will be the largest tower companies in the Philippines once the deal has been completed. Additionally, Swiss bank UBS advised PLDT on the transaction.
“This transaction presents a highly strategic acquisition for Edotco, as it diversifies and strengthens our pan-Asian platform with exposure to a nascent, high-growth market with strong governmental support,”
Adlan Tajudin, CEO of Edotco Group
Started his freelancing adventure in 2018 and began doing freelance Audio Engineering work and then started freelance writing a few years later.
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