Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel) and Ayala Corp. of the Philippines have increased their stakes in Philippine company Globe Telecommunications Inc. by buying up the 24.8 per cent stake owned by Deutsche Telekom AG.
Deutsche Telekom put its stake up for sale in June, citing “strategic considerations”, but was unable to secure a sale at that time.
The two Asian companies now have an equal 43.3 per cent share in Globe. SingTel paid 14.7 billion pesos (US$270 million) to increase its share from 29.1 per cent. Both SingTel and Ayala paid 680 pesos per share, a 10 per cent discount from Globe’s current share price of 755 pesos.
SingTel has been aggressively pursuing a strategy of expansion in Asia, with subsidiaries or affiliates in Australia, the Philippines, India, Thailand and Indonesia. These entities combined now account for over half of SingTel’s revenue and much of its profit.