DITO names buyers of 2.2 billion shares; details wanting

DITO CME Holdings Corp. on Monday named the buyers of 2.2 billion shares it sold earlier this month to raise additional capital for the listed but capital-deficient telecom of businessman Dennis Uy. The listed telecommunications company didn’t immediately provide corporate details about the buyers.

DITO, the third largest telecom service provider in the country, said it sold 610 million shares to Xterra Ventures Ptd. Ltd. and 1.59 billion shares to Summit Telco Corp. Pte Ltd. The shares were sold for P1 each. Combined, the 2.2 billion shares represent a 13.5 percent stake in DITO.

The listed company didn’t provide further details about Xterra Ventures and Summit Telco. A quick Google search showed similarly named privately-held companies registered in Singapore earlier this year. It is unclear whether the Singapore-registered companies and the buyers of DITO shares are the same.

DITO reported a capital deficiency of P31.07 billion at the end of June, larger than end-December 2022 level of P27.89 billion, due to an increase in total liabilities to P224.97 billion from P220.77 billion in the same period. Its interest-bearing loans and borrowings under current liabilities total P67.57 billion while those under non-current liability reached P19.23 billion.

In the first half, DITO reported diminished net loss of P3.19 billion compared with P15.43 billion in the year-earlier period due main to foreign exchange gains.