PLDT completes P2.8-B sale of 230 telecom towers to Frontier 

PLDT Inc. announced on Friday that it had completed the sale of its 230 telecommunications towers to Frontier Tower Associates Philippines, Inc. for P2.8 billion.

This is part of the 1,012 towers PLDT sold to Frontier through a P12.1 billion sale-and-leaseback deal announced in March.

“The Master Services Agreement covering the leaseback arrangement for those towers also became effective as of today,” PLDT said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

PLDT expects the remaining transfers to be done in the next few months once closing conditions are met, it added.

The 1,012 towers involved in the agreement are part of the 7,569 that PLDT has been monetizing through sale-and-leaseback transactions valued at P98.3 billion since April 2022.

PLDT also has tower sale-and-leaseback agreements with Edgepoint’s Philippine unit Comworks Infratech Corp., edotco Group’s ISOC edotco Towers, Inc., and Unity Digital Infrastructure, Inc.

A peer snapshot report from credit rater Moody’s Investor Services in June said that PLDT would still have 4,430 towers or 37% of its tower portfolio to monetize.

It also said that PLDT has closed around 70% of its total announced tower sales as of May 16, valued at P69.5 billion.

PLDT saw a 22.4% increase in its attributable net income to P9.44 billion for the second quarter, from P7.71 billion in the same period last year, after booking higher revenues and lower operational expenses.

For the first half, the company booked P18.45 billion in attributable net income, a 9.9% jump from P16.79 billion in the same period last year.

PLDT aims to push for an asset-light balance sheet and affordable internet services through the sale and leaseback of towers, it said in its disclosure.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.—Miguel Hanz L. Antivola