Gokongwei still keen on FPC’s PLDT stake

The Gokongwei group remains interested in acquiring part of First Pacific Co. Ltd.’s 24.4-percent controlling stake in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), it was learned yesterday.

Highly placed sources told The STAR that Gokongwei group patriarch John Gokongwei Jr. met with First Pacific controlling shareholder Anthoni Salim in Shanghai, China last Oct. 10 where Gokongwei, through his personal legal counsel Perry Pe, said that they remain interested in PLDT.

The Gokongweis earlier withdrew their offer to acquire First Pacific’s stake in PLDT after the Hong Kong-based group failed to deliver certain conditionalities mentioned in their June 4 memorandum of agreement, including facilitating the conduct by the Gokongweis of a due diligence investigation of PLDT.

Following the expiration of the exclusivity period granted by First Pacific to the Gokongweis under the MOA last Sept. 30, the Gokongwei group said it was terminating the agreement with First Pacific, which the latter accepted, as it mentioned the continuing opposition of the PLDT management to the sale.

But in an interview with The STAR, JG Summit Holdings president Lance Gokongwei said that the reasons why the Gokongwei group withdrew its offer are still there and there is no indication that they are about to disappear.

"As far as the group is concerned, right now, we are no longer interested in PLDT. Whether the conditions will change remains to be seen, but it will be difficult to speculate what’s going to happen," he said.

The younger Gokongwei admitted though that his father was in Beijing, China last week, but that he was not aware of any meeting between him and Salim.

Pe, in a separate interview, denied being in China and said that he was not aware of any continuing interest on the part of John Gokongwei Jr. "What I know is that we are finished with PLDT but I am not privy to what Mr. Gokongwei is thinking," he said.