Digitel files for voluntary delisting

MANILA, Philippines - Digital Telecommunications Phils. Inc. (Digitel) has filed for voluntary delisting of its shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) as a consequence of the acquisition by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) of 98 percent of its enlarged capital base.

PLDT last year acquired 51.55 percent of Digitel from JG Summit Holdings Inc. and other parties. The subsequent conduct by PLDT of a mandatory tender offer resulted in the acquisition of an additional 48.45 percent of Digitel, this time from minority shareholders.

Digitel said that it had to apply for voluntary delisting since as a consequence of the tender offer, the public ownership of the company fell below the minimum prescribed by the PSE.

Following the completion of the tender offer and the previous partial conversions of the convertible/exchangeable bonds held by PLDT into four billion Digitel shares, PLDT now owns 10.165 billion Digitel shares or 98 percent of the enlarged capital base of Digitel.

PSE rules on voluntary delisting require among others that following the acquisition of the tendered shares, the person proposing the delisting has obtained a total of at least 95 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of the company.

A total of 2.89 billion shares were tendered by Digitel minority shareholders, representing approximately 94 percent of the shares held by the public.