MANILA — Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy’s Dito Telecommunity (DitoTel) has successfully renewed its bridging facility with two Chinese banks as several of their loans matured on Friday.
In a stock exchange release, parent company Dito CME Holdings Corp. announce that Bank of China and China Minsheng Banking Corp. ltd extended the $1.17 billion bridge facility.
“This bridge facility is intended to be repaid and absorbed through a US$3.9 billion long-term project financing facility currently being finalized by DitoTel’s management and targeting completion within the year,” it said.
DitoTel is in the midst of aggressively rolling out its network and has bank loans from China Minsheng and the Bank of China’s overseas and domestic branches.
Long Term Loan
According to Dito CME, those loans were originally due Friday, May 26, after DitoTel was granted an extension last year.
Last week, Dito CME President Ernesto Alberto said it was confident another debt extension would be granted as the group closed the separate $3.9 billion long-term debt facility.
Concerns about the company’s ability to stay in business are growing as Dito CME lost Ptas 11.24 billion last year on higher spending. This despite tripling sales to 7.28 billion pesetas in 2022.
Greater range
While the parent company suffered 3 billion pesetas in net losses in the first quarter of the year, DitoTel announced earlier this month that the company plans to offer satellite internet services as part of its plans to expand its reach in the country.
Capital expenditure on network investment this year was 27 billion pesetas.
By the end of March, Dito CME had seen the number of subscribers grow to around 16 million. INQ
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