MANILA, Philippines, June 16, 2011 –   PLDT shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favor of the telecom  company's investment in Digital Telecommunications Phils., Inc. (Digitel) during the  annual stockholders meeting held Tuesday at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City.

Shareholders owning 80.2% of the outstanding common stocks of PLDT voted to approve the issuance of up to 29,654,378 shares of common stocks of PLDT priced at P2,500 per share as payment for the ownership interest in Digitel of JG Summit Holdings and certain other parties.

A two-thirds vote of outstanding shares is required to approve the move.

"The vote demonstrates the strong support that the Digitel investment enjoys among PLDT shareholders. This transaction will indeed benefit PLDT’s shareholders, PLDT’s and Sun’s subscribers and the general public in the form of improved telecom services utilizing the combined resources of PLDT and Digitel," said PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan.

The Digitel properties involved in the transaction consist of 3,277,135,882 common shares in Digitel which amount to a 51.55% equity stake, zero-coupon convertible bonds issued by Digitel and its subsidiaries to the JG Summit Group convertible into approximately 18.6 billion Digitel shares by June 30, 2011, and inter-company advances of P34.1 billion made by the JG Summit Group and other parties to Digitel and its subsidiaries.

The agreed consideration for the abovementioned properties is P69.2 billion, while the remaining 3.08 billion Digitel common stocks held by public shareholders will be subject of a tender offer to be undertaken by PLDT.

Digitel’s minority shareholders can elect to tender their shares at an indicative price of P1.6033 per share and will have the option of being paid in cash or in PLDT shares priced at P2,500. Should all minority shareholders accept PLDT’s offer, the aggregate transaction consideration would total P74.1 billion.

During the stockholders meeting, Pangilinan underscored the long-term benefits of the investment in Digitel.

“The combined networks will result in the accelerated rollout of new technologies such as   4G or long-term evolution. Sun subscribers will share in the benefits of 4G/LTE earlier than planned,” said Pangilinan.

“Sun Cellular subscribers will enjoy and experience expanded 3G and broadband coverage, as well as enhanced network capacity resulting from optimized use of both networks,” he added.

The transaction is expected to benefit the market, enhancing consumer welfare through improved affordability and higher levels of service quality and coverage for both PLDT and Digitel.