Pilipino Telephone Corp (Piltel), a unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), plans to exit the country’s mobile market in order to serve as the investment arm of the PLDT group in the energy sector. According to a report from the Manila Standard Today, Piltel said in a filing to the country’s stock exchange that it will seek approval of shareholders and regulators on ‘certain arrangements’ with its parent firm Smart Communications, which will take over its mobile phone brand Talk ’N Text. The arrangements in question include the licensing of the Talk ’N Text brand: Smart will reportedly pay Piltel a lump sum royalty fee based on a percentage of projected net service revenues.
Piltel is currently a 92.81%-owned subsidiary of Smart, which itself is wholly owned by PLDT. Piltel’s articles of incorporation allow it to make investments in other businesses outside of telecoms. In 2008 Piltel recorded net income of PHP11.3 billion (USD232 million), up 33% year-on-year, after increasing is customer base by more than four million to 14.3 million.