Sun Cellular taps central bank for USD117m loan

Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc (DMPI), owner of the Sun Cellular brand, is looking to secure approval from the country’s central bank to draw down a USD117 million loan from foreign banks to finance its network expansion in 2010. In a filing to the country’s monetary board, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy-making body, DMPI asked for clearance to borrow the monies from China Development Bank and the HSBC Bank. If ratified, the cellco will use the loan to expand network coverage and improve capacity and quality of its services on its existing cell sites. The cellco signed up around three million net new customers in the first half of 2010, to close out the period with more than 14 million subscribers. DMPI says its subscriber growth is a product of its aggressive network rollout programme. To date, the cellco has deployed over 6,000 base transceiver stations (BTS) nationwide and continues to expand.