In photo: PLDT and Smart executives led by President and CEO Alfredo S. Panlilio and edotco Group leaders led by CEO Mohamed Adlan Ahmad Tajudin. Also in attendance were Anabelle L. Chua, Chief Financial Officer at PLDT, Marilyn V. Aquino, Chief Legal Counsel at PLDT, and Joachim Horn, Next-Generation Solutions Advisor at Smart.

The country’s largest integrated telco, PLDT Inc. (“PLDT”) (PSE: TEL) (NYSE: PHI), announced last April 19, 2022 that its subsidiaries, Smart Communications, Inc. (“Smart”) and Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc. (“Digitel”), had signed Sale and Purchase Agreements in connection with the sale of 5,907 telecom towers and related passive telecom infrastructure for PHP 77 billion to a subsidiary of EdgePoint and a subsidiary of edotco (the “TowerCos”).

Less than one and a half months from the signing of those Sale and Purchase Agreements, PLDT announced today that Smart and Digitel have successfully achieved first closing by completing the sale of 3,012 telecom towers (representing more than half of the towers being monetized) and receiving the corresponding cash consideration of approximately PHP 39.2 billion. On the same day, the Master Services Agreements covering the leaseback arrangements for those towers became effective.

As the largest ever acquisition of assets in the Philippines by international investors, this investment by international tower operators represents a strong endorsement of the country’s recovery from the pandemic and its long-term growth prospects. This pioneer undertaking also supports the Philippine Department of Information and Communications Technology’s goal of improving tower density which will lead to significant efficiencies and improved connectivity across the Philippines.

PLDT foresees additional closings in the next few months as the transaction is staggered based on number of towers being transferred, with final closing expected by Q4 2022.