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Elijah Felice Rosales - The Philippine Star
March 1, 2025 | 12:00am
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Dito CME said the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has approved its transaction with Summit Telco Corp. Pte. Ltd.
Businessworld / File
MANILA, Philippines — Dito CME Holdings Corp. has received the green light from the competition regulator to proceed with its plan to hand over majority control to a Singapore-based investor.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Dito CME said the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has approved its transaction with Summit Telco Corp. Pte. Ltd.
The agreement involves Summit Telco investing in up to nine billion primary common shares in Dito CME, which would make it the majority owner of the company.
“Amended disclosure to state that on Feb. 27, 2025, the corporation received an email notice from the PCC clearing the transaction. The corporation has yet to receive the official certification regarding the clearance from the PCC,” Dito CME said.
Currently, Udenna Corp. of Davao’s Dennis Uy owns 49.79 percent of Dito CME, while Summit Telco Holdings Corp. holds 15.36 percent. Summit Telco Corp. Pte. Ltd. is keeping 7.4 percent, while the remainder is issued to the public.
Once the new shares are subscribed to Summit Telco, it will become the majority owner of Dito CME, the parent of the youngest telco in the Philippines, Dito Telecommunity Corp.
Dito CME chairman Uy and president Donald Patrick Lim are negotiating with Summit Telco for the final terms of the investment, including amount, timing and tranches.
Dito CME is struggling to keep its finances abreast following the investments it made in building up Dito’s network infrastructure.
Between January and September 2024, Dito CME’s net loss jumped to P11.05 billion, with capital deficiency soaring at P60.23 billion.
In spite of this, Dito CME is confident that the worst is over for the company, as revenue starts to climb on Dito’s expansion.
Earlier, Dito CME chief financial officer Leo Venezuela said the telco should book a profit by 2027 as projected by the management.
Dito CME is also increasing its revenue at a steady pace, hitting almost P12 billion in the nine months to September 2024.
For 2025, Dito CME is also benefitting from a spending cut, as it will trim capital expenditures to a range of P15 billion to P20 billion, from P25 billion to P30 billion last year.
Dito’s focus right now is to acquire new solutions to widen its portfolio of connectivity services, hoping to capture part of the demand for mobile data.
