BIZ BUZZ: Betting on DigiCo

Tycoon Manuel Pangilinan seems to be betting more on his newest business venture, DigiCo, which is envisioned to “be ‘the app’ for all Filipinos—their default platform for bills, payments and rewards.”

On Tuesday, PLDT Inc. disclosed that the telco giant, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) subscribed to 570 million additional shares in DigiCo in total.

Following their separate transactions, PLDT holds 45-percent ownership in the subsidiary while Meralco and MPIC each own 27.5 percent.

The telco player, however, did not disclose exactly how much the capital infusion is.

Now, the question is: How will DigiCo spend the injected equity? Is another acquisition on the horizon?

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To recall, the company recently completed the 10-percent stake purchase in bills payment provider CIS Bayad Center Inc., which is controlled by Meralco.

DigiCo also fully acquired e-payment solutions provider Multipay Corp., a unit of Multisys Technologies Corp. Multisys is 46-percent owned by PLDT via its unit PLDT Global Investments Holdings Inc.