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Makati court declares PT&T officially out of corporate rehab


A Makati court has denied the appeals of creditors to leave Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) in a court-assisted corporate rehabilitation.

In a regulatory filing by PT&T legal counsel Kenneth Joey Maceren on Friday, the company said it received an order on December 21 from Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 66 denying the opposition and motions for reconsideration filed by its creditors on the court’s August 6 order, which allowed PT&T to exit from rehabilitation subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions

The court confirmed that the company substantially complied with the conditions set under the August 6 decision.

“In view of the ... substantial compliance, the Rehabilitation Court declared that PT&T is now out of rehabilitation and its exit is no longer conditional,” the company said.

In a separate statement, PT&T said its total liabilities have gone down significantly to P1.5 billion as of October this year, the majority of its debt converted into preferred shares.

Under a court-approved 14-year rehabilitation plan, PT&T would settle P8.8 billion of debts by paying creditors with redeemable serial preferred shares of the company. The rehabilitation plan was approved in 2011.

“We have been waiting for this and it is in line with our growth aspirations and vision of turning PT&T into a digital services provider,” PT&T president and CEO James Velasquez said.

PT&T now has the financial muscle to support the company’s existing operations as well as its multi-billion peso capital expenditure to roll-out infrastructure over five years to compete aggressively in the telecommunications industry.

The company’s paid-up capital was also raised to P10.9 billion from P2 billion.

Its assets reached P837.60 million as of October this year, higher compared with P759.46 million in 2017.

PT&T is among the contenders who joined the third telco bid but was eventually disqualified for not having a certificate of technical capability.

In November, the National Telecommunications Commission officially declared Mislatel Consortium as the country’s new major player in the telecom industry

Mislatel Consortium is composed of Udenna Corporation and its subsidiary Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp., franchise holder Mindanao Islamic Telephone Co., and foreign partner China Telecommunications Corp. Both Udenna and Chelsea Logistics are controlled  by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy.

“We want to assure the public and the government that we have the financial capability to support our bid to become the new major player and our existing operations,” Velasquez said.

"We were able to cut our liabilities significantly and we posted a profit this fiscal year. What is also relevant to point out is that PT&T met all the financial qualification requirements for the New Major Player bid. The new management promises to sustain our growth trajectory,” he added. —VDS, GMA News

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