Destiny Cable’s sale to Sky Cable OKd

MANILA, Philippines – The sale of Destiny Cable Inc. to Sky Cable Corp., a subsidiary of Lopez-owned Sky Vision Corp., has been approved by regulators.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) approved the sale on December 18 stating that Destiny Cable of the the Lim-owned Solid Group has met all the requirements set by the commission.

“[The] applicant has met all the requirements imposed by the Commission in so far as the approval of the deed of sale, assignment and transfer of assets, licenses and permits of an existing cable television systems and that petitioner-vendee is financially capable of assuming the herein cable television stations being sought for,” the NTC said in its decision statement.

Under the purchase agreement, Sky Cable will purchase all of Destiny Cable’s assets for P2.4 billion. Sky Cable will also acquire Solid Group’s Solid Broadband for P1 billion and Uni-Cable for P93.6 million.

To finance the acquisition, Sky Cable will try to raise P2 billion in debt and P1.5 billion from equity fund raising.

“The sale of cable TV and broadband Internet assets and subscribers of DCI, SBC and UNI to Sky Cable will mean incremental EBITDA to Sky Cable of about P350 million per year,” ABS-CBN Corp., which owns Sky Vision, stated in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

The sale will improve the services provided to Destiny Cable TV and MyDestiny broadband Internet subscribers, added ABS-CBN. “This will mean additional subscribers for Sky Cable thus translating to incremental revenues and income.”

Sky Cable has around 500,000 cable TV subscribers while Destiny Cable has signed up some 200,000 subscribers. When combined, this gives Sky Cable close to 45% share of the market.

Sky Cable’s authorized capital stock as of March 2011 stood at P900 million, which is divided into 900 million common shares with a par value of P1.

“Corollary to this, the commission had issued a certification on May 14, 2012 attesting that Destiny Cable has no outstanding obligation for its supervision and regulation fees,” the NTC stated. – Rappler.com