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NTT snares PLDT stake
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December 13, 1999: 7:58 a.m. ET
Philippine Long Distance shares surge as Japanese giant boosts Asian network
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), the country’s dominant telecom operator, sealed a strategic alliance with Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. to send the Manila market surging Monday.
PLDT will acquire Smart Communications, the country’s largest cellular player, including a 37.2 percent stake owned by NTT.
With NTT also subscribing a reported 87.5 billion yen ($854 million) in cash and stock for PLDT shares, the Japanese company ends up with a 15 percent stake in its Philippines counterpart. The companies declined to place an official value on the transaction.
PLDT shares closed up 21 percent, after posting an intra-day gain of as much as 23 percent. The performance lifted the broader Manila market by 3.76 percent.
The deal will give PLDT around 75 percent of the Philippine fixed and cellular markets and provide NTT with another regional foothold to add to existing assets in Australia, Thailand and Singapore. The Japanese company gained permission to start expanding overseas as recently as July.
PLDT already has 58 percent of Piltel, the country’s second-largest cellular operator with 400,000 subscribers, compared with the 850,000 it has acquired with Smartone. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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