PLDT and Globe will own 95.45 percent of Liberty after a tender offer is satisfied. Liberty owns a large chunk of the 700 MHz spectrum.
When news broke that telco giants PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom were buying out San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) telecommunications unit last May 30, minority shareholders of Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc. were elated.
Liberty, among the units being acquired under the SMC holding company Vega Telecom, held most of the coveted 700 megahertz (MHz) spectrum, the main target of the P70-billion deal launched by the incumbent telco players.
Their elation was short-lived. Here is a quick recount of what occurred:
First was the uncertainty over a tender offer—it was eventually announced by PLDT and Globe—but it would take the form of a “voluntary offer” instead of the mandatory one that usually accompanied such changes in ownership.
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Next, and more controversial, was a tender offer price that was deemed so low that some minority investors stood to lose money. That was after it was circulated the 700 MHz was “reassigned” to another company, an event that was not disclosed for more than a year.
It turned out that reassignment was hardly relevant as far as valuation was concerned. Backed by an independent fairness opinion, no value for the frequencies likely worth billions of pesos was assigned as the owners invoked certain accounting rules.
