PLDT, INC. on Monday said it has completed the sale of most of its shares in German e-commerce investor Rocket Internet.
In a statement, PLDT said Rocket Internet has accepted 6,800,000 Rocket shares tendered by PLDT subsidiary PLDT Online Investments Pte. Ltd. at €24 per share or a total of €163.2 million. This represents around 67.4% of the Rocket shares held by PLDT Online.
From its equity ownership of 6.1%, PLDT Online will now have a 2% stake in Rocket.
PLDT said Rocket will settle the payment on or before May 14.
Rocket Internet earlier announced the buyback of up to 15.47 million shares through a public share purchase offer at €24 per share.
In August 2014, PLDT invested €333 million (around $362 million) for a 10% stake in Rocket, whose brands then included Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms such as Zalora and Lazada. In October that year, Rocket Internet went public, which effectively diluted PLDT’s stake to 6.1%.
PLDT Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan had previously said the company may sell its position in Rocket to fund its capital expenditure (capex), which is expected to stay above P50 billion for this year. PLDT is set to expand its fixed and mobile networks as part of its five-year P260-billion capex program.
Mr. Pangilinan had said that there is “no pressure” to divest the remaining one third of its stake in the German company, and that the divestment would depend on the movement of the share price of Rocket. He said PLDT still sees its investments in Rocket as still valuable.
Shares in PLDT fell by P21 or 1.54% to close at P1,345 each on Monday.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — P.P.C. Marcelo
