Rumor: SM’s Henry Sy buying Globe Telecom? (Philippines)

> We got this really surprising tip from a source that rumor is going around that billionaire tycoon Henry Sy is looking to buy controlling shares of Globe Telecom.

Henry Sy has interestes in a lot of markets — retail, real estate, banking, leisure, etc. This rumored interest in the telecoms industry could have been sparked by the recent acquisition of Digitel by PLDT, putting the competition between Smart and Globe in a spotlight.


Earlier, Globe has secured a $90 million loan from China Banking Corp. to spend for the expansion of its 4G network in the Philippines. China Bank is also owned by Henry Sy.

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Globe has a market capitalization of around Php142 billion and recently achieved a 1st quarter revenue of Php20.2 billion (Q1, 2012). The company is partly owned by the Ayalas with 32% share while Singaporean telecom, Singtel, owns 47%.

Henry Sy is the Philippine’s richest guy (#173 in the world) with an estimated worth of $8 billion or Php344 billion. That’s more than enough money to buy controlling shares of Globe.

Henry Sy doesn’t need to buy it out of the Ayala clan. He can just buy the majority shares from Singtel to take control of the telco.

Again, it’s just a rumor (so take this story with a grain of salt) but if this actually happens, Henry Sy might do to Globe what it did to Banco de Oro — propelling the company to the top spot by leveraging on its assets and interests in other markets.

Source

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