Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. yesterday said that Japan’s NTT Communications Corp. has completed its sale of around 12.6 million PLDT common shares to NTT DoCoMo Inc. The transaction was earlier valued by PLDT at 0 million (¥52.103 billion). The sale of shares, which represents 7 percent of PLDT’s outstanding common stock, halves the 14 percent stake of NTT Communications in PLDT. While the transaction won’t provide additional funds for PLDT, PLDT Chairman Manuel Pangilinan said the deal is particularly significant in light of the recent award to PLDT unit Smart Communications Inc. of a license to provide third generation, or 3G, cellular services. NTT DoCoMo, which will get one seat on PLDT’s 15-strong board, started offering 3G services in Japan four years ago and ended 2005 with around 20 million subscribers to the service. Smart and NTT DoCoMo agreed recently to introduce the Japanese company’s mobile Internet service to Smart subscribers. PLDT said the other benefits of the relationship with NTT DoCoMo include co-development of other 3G services or applications, roaming arrangements and potential handset and equipment procurement savings. PLDT added that NTT DoCoMo may even consider increasing its investment in the Philippine company "provided a suitable opportunity arises."

Megaworld Corporation said yesterday that starting next year it will pay an annual cash dividend equivalent to 20 percent of its net profit in the preceding year. In a statement, the property developer said its board has approved the policy to declare cash dividends in the first half of every year, to be taken from its unrestricted retained earnings. The pay-out ratio may be adjusted, depending on the results of the company’s operations and its future projects and plans, it said. It declared last month a cash dividend — its first since it listed in June 1994 — of P0.02 per share, payable on April 10 to shareholders on record as of March 15. Its subsidiary Empire East Land Holdings Inc. said yesteray its board approved the declaration of a 3-for-20 stock dividend for shareholders on record July 13. The stock dividend will be paid on Aug. 8.

Keppel Philippines Holdings Inc. said it will sell its 6.53 million common shares in shipbuilder Keppel Philippines Marine Inc. (KPMI) to KS Investments Pte Ltd for P1.00 each. KS Investments, a unit of Singapore’s Keppel Corp, has offered to buyout other shareholders in the Philippine shipbuilder. Earlier it launched a tender offer to acquire 70.52 percent of KPMI it still does not own, or 1.41 billion common shares at P1.00 each. The tender offer will end on March 28. In late January, KS Investments acquired the 29.44 percent stake of Keppel Shipyard Ltd, another Keppel Corp unit, in KPMI.

Globe Telecom Inc. said it has postponed a plan to charge for overseas calls by the second instead of by the minute, citing "technical matters." Froilan Castelo, head for regulatory affairs at Globe, said in a letter to the National Telecommunications Commission: "Please take note that due to some technical matters, Globe shall defer the launch of its IDD per-second promo. We shall inform the commission as soon as we are ready to launch the same." Globe already charges for domestic calls by the second. Globe is 44.6 percent owned by Singapore Telecom International Pte Ltd and 34.5 percent by Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corp.

International Exchange Bank (iBank) made a net profit of around P800 million in 2005, up 53 percent from the previous year’s P523 million. In a statement, the midsized lender said the preliminary net profit estimate is based on new accounting standards. It translates to an earnings per share of P2.43 or a 25 percent increase from P1.94 in 2004. The bank did not provide any other details of its results. It is offering up to P2.5 billion worth of Tier2 notes beginning today. "The EPS growth is less than income growth on account of the additional shares issued in connection with the December 2004 initial public offering," iBank said. The bank’s total resources amounted to P60 billion as of Dec 29, up 15 percent year-on-year, while its non-performing loans ratio stood at 6.7 percent and capital adequacy ratio (CAR) at 17 percent. It said its CAR will improve to around 25 percent after the issuance of Tier-2 notes whose expected coupon rate is between 9.25 percent and 9.75 percent. Deutsche Bank AG’s Manila branch is the lead arranger.