Dito CME to gain indirect stake in telco startup in share-swap deal

LISTED Dito CME Holdings Corp. is acquiring an indirect stake in telco startup Dito Telecommunity Corp.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Tuesday, Dito CME, a Dennis A. Uy-led holding firm, said it had approved the terms and conditions of the acquisition of 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Udenna Communications Media and Entertainment or Udenna CME.

Udenna CME holds Udenna Corp.’s shares in its telecommunications business.

Dito Telecommunity is currently owned by Udenna (35%), Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure Holdings Corp. (25%), and China Telecom Group (40%).

Udenna CME is a major stakeholder of Dito Holdings Corp., which was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in October last year. Last week, Chelsea, a Udenna company, announced that its board of directors had approved the sale of its common and preferred shares in Dito Telecommunity to Dito Holdings.

Thus, Dito CME will end up as the beneficial owner of Udenna’s equity interests in Dito Telecommunity, excluding those under Chelsea, through Dito Holdings, which will own 60% of the telco startup.

Dito CME said the acquisition of Udenna CME will be a share-for-share swap with Udenna, “in exchange for 11,200,000,000 shares of Dito CME at an issue price of approximately P6.00 to P6.90 per share.”

“This is one step of our plan of realizing Dito CME’s ownership of Dito Telecommunity, through Udenna CME and Dito Holdings Corp.,” Dito CME President Eric R. Alberto said in a statement. — Arjay L. Balinbin