PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel Pangilinan said its investment arm is reviewing its portfolio and will likely make some “interesting” acquisitions next year, BusinessWorld reported.
Pangilinan said the company will have significant gains from selling off its remaining stakes in Manila Electric and SPi Global Holdings, a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider. The funds will be used to pay down some of its debt and to fund capex this year, which is targeted at PHP46 billion ($904 million).
The newspaper quoted him as saying: “Maybe next year, we’ll have to revisit the portfolio. Most likely there will be some acquisitions and some interesting opportunities.”
PLDT’s mobile unit Smart has a 49 per cent share of the country’s mobile connections, trailing rival Globe Telecom by just 1 percentage point, according to GSMA Intelligence data for Q2.
The company set up US-based PLDT Capital in 2015 to look for investments and business partnerships in the mobile, digital media content and entertainment sectors. It invested $10 million in 2016 to form a partnership with US-based developer of mobile applications Phunware.
Before the unit was established, the operator invested about $362 million in 2014 for a 10 per cent stake in Rocket Internet, a German investor in technology start-ups. PLTD holds about a 6 per cent stake in Rocket Internet, which went public in late 2014.
