DITO CME postpones P4.2B follow-on offer

DITO CME Holdings Corp. has postponed to a later date its P4.2-billion follow-on offering as potential investors take their time in assessing this fund-raising activity meant to support the firm’s telecommunications business expansion.

In a disclosure on Tuesday, the parent company of DITO Telecommunity said that it had “proposed to change the offer period” of the offering “upon careful consideration.” It was supposed to run from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2.

The new schedule for the offer period is yet to be approved.

“This is in light of the several requests received from potential investors asking for additional time to further evaluate this investment opportunity,” said the company led by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy.

Assurance

The Philippine Stock Exchange gave the go signal last week for the follow-on offering comprising the sale of 1.95 billion primary common shares at P2.15 apiece.

Before this, DITO CME was supposed to complete an P8-billion stock rights offering in 2022 but decided to drop it due to weak demand from large investors.

The company refunded the subscription payments made by the investors as a result.

DITO CME president and chief operating officer Donald Lim earlier this month gave assurance that no cancellation would happen this time around, expressing optimism towards the economy and stock market.

The Philippines’ third telco player also wants to secure up to P40.26 billion in fresh funding via private placements in the next five years or until the end of 2028.

The company last year received P5.5 billion from selling common shares to Singapore-based third party investors.

On the debt side, DITO CME also secured last year a 15-year loan agreement from several creditors amounting to $3.9 billion (about P224.48 billion) in total. It drew P170.61 billion from these loan facilities last year to repay obligations and network construction-related payables.

DITO CME earmarked P27 billion in capital expenditures for this year in order to reach geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas where there is lack of internet connectivity.

As of end-June, it has over 11.3 million subscribers and 7,450 telecommunication towers covering 80.65 percent of the country’s population.