PT&T sets market return after hiatus

Nearly two decades after its voluntary suspension, telecommunications firm Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T) is set to return to the Philippine Stock Exchange within the year.

PT&T president and CEO James Velasquez confirmed that the company is “on track” to complete the requirements for resuming trading.

“The plan is to be able to do that within the year. So hopefully within the first half is our objective,” Velasquez said in an interview with reporters.

He noted that PT&T is in the final stages of securing regulatory approvals.

“It’s in process. So there are still a few things that we need to complete. But I would say 90 percent of what we need to do has been completed. So we’re in the tail end of that,” he added.

PT&T was suspended from trading in 2004 due to financial difficulties and non-compliance with disclosure and reportorial requirements. Since then, the company has undergone corporate rehabilitation and expanded its presence in the telecommunications and IT services sectors.

Capital rebuilding

In a key step toward its comeback, PT&T settled its P9-billion capital deficiency last year through a debt-to-equity conversion. Additionally, in November 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved an increase in the company’s authorized capital stock from P3.8 billion to P12.6 billion.

With most regulatory hurdles cleared, PT&T is poised to reenter the stock market, a move expected to bolster investor confidence and support its long-term growth strategy.

Recently, SecureLink Networks Inc., a joint venture between PT&T Corp. and Australia’s Netlinkz Ltd., invested heavily to establish a local technology lab to enhance connectivity and cybersecurity.

Velasquez and James Tsiolis, CEO of Netlinkz and chairman of SecureLink Networks, said the company has started looking out for potential partners to accelerate the project.