Stock market investors on Monday dumped shares Of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), dragging down the market index by 4.7 percent, on concerns that the country’s most valuable company may jack up debts or even tighten future cash dividends with its bold entry into power retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
Also on Monday, Moody’s Investors Service revised the status of PLDT’s Baa2 local-currency debt issuer rating from review for possible upgrade to review with direction uncertain. Moody’s also affirmed PLDT’s Ba2/positive foreign-currency bond rating.
From bad to worse. That’s how the Philippine economy will fare in 2009 as the effects of the global financial crisis become more pronounced, experts say.
By worse, they mean a negative spiral of low consumer spending and dwindling demand that will eventually lead to more production cuts and job layoffs, and then greater poverty.
In other parts of the world, the country’s major trading partners have already succumbed to the financial crisis and slipped into recession.
UK investment manager Ashmore Group will exercise its right to raise its stake to 90 percent in oil refiner Petron Corp., but it may turn around and sell a portion to San Miguel, a top Petron official said on Wednesday.
Talks have begun between Ashmore and Southeast Asia’s largest food and beverage firm San Miguel Corp., which wants to buy into Petron, but the negotiations are far from finished, Eric Recto, Petron president and an Ashmore representative to the oil firm told Reuters.
