A Singapore-registered company acquired another P3.3 billion worth of shares in DITO CME Holdings Inc. via a private placement.
A private placement refers to the sale of securities to an accredited shareholder or investor.
DITO CME said Monday it raised P3.3 billion through private placement with existing shareholder Summit Telco Holdings Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Summit Telco Corp. Pte. Ltd.
The publicly-listed firm owned by Davao City-based businessman Dennis Uy privately placed with Summit Telco a total of 3.3 billion new shares at P1 each for P3.3 billion.
DITO earlier issued 3.88 billion shares to Summit Telco for P3.88 billion, which would be used to fund additional equity requirements of operating subsidiary DITO Telecom Corp.
The company also sold 610 million shares to Xterra Ventures Ptd. Ltd.
The fresh funding came after DITO CME signed a $3.9-billion loan facility with a group of multinational banks to support the operations of DITO.
The company said it would use the proceeds to extinguish short-term bridge loan facilities totaling $1.3 billion with the balance to pay contractors and fund the continuing network rollout of DITO Tel.
DITO allotted P27 billion for 2023 capital expenditures, lower than last year’s P50 billion.
The company also named Ernest Alberto as the new chief executive of DITO Telecom, replacing Uy, who remains chairman of the third-ranked telco.
DITO CME chief operating officer Donald Patrick Lim was appointed as DITO CME president in an acting capacity.
The movement of DITO’s executives aims to sustain the high-growth of its telecom unit.
DITO CME earlier booked a net loss of P11.24 billion in 2022 on high operating expenses of its telecom business.
