Now to bid for third telco as consortium member

Now Corp. announced Friday it will join the government’s third telco initiative as part of a consortium.

In a regulatory filing submitted by Now Corp. corporate secretary Angeline Macasaet, the company said its board of directors has formally authorized its “participation, as a member of a consortium, in the Selection Process for a New Major Player in the Philippine Telecommunications Market.”

On Monday, October 8, Now Corp.’s affiliate Now Telecom bought bid documents for the new major player in the telecom industry from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

That same day, however, Now Telecom filed for an injunction against the government before the Regional Trial Court of Manila seeking to remove certain provisions in the final terms of reference, namely the P700-million “Participation Security,” the P14 to P24-billion “Performance Security,” and the P10-million non-refundable “Appeal Fee.”

The Department of Information and Communications Technology has since questioned the timing of Now Telecom’s complaint.

Now Corp. also said on Friday that its board has approved an equity conversion by shareholder, Velarde Inc., amounting to P209,000,000.00. The conversion price of at P6.50 per share was computed based on the volume weighted average price of the 30-day trading period ending Oct., 11, 2018. —Ted Cordero/VDS, GMA News