TELECOMMUNICATIONS company PLDT Inc. said it is nearing an agreement on the sale of its data center business.
“I think it is fair that we are still in discussion, and I think we are coming close to an agreement within the year,” PLDT Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said on the sidelines of a recent launch event.
“This will also be subjected to PCC (Philippine Competition Commission) review,” he added.
Earlier, PLDT said it anticipated settling some negotiations with the company and finalizing the agreement by the end of July.
PLDT has been in talks to sell up to 49% of its data center business, ePLDT, Inc., to Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, which valued its data center at $1 billion.
In July, ePLDT announced that it had completed the structure of its 50-megawatt hyperscale VITRO Sta. Rosa, its biggest data center to date.
The structural completion of VITRO Sta. Rosa, the company’s 11th data center, will pave the way for power integration and energization, ePLDT said.
VITRO Sta. Rosa is designed as an energy-efficient facility while also using the latest innovations in cooling and power redundancy — the highest network level with at least three fiber routes from PLDT and other telecommunication providers.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Ashley Erika O. Jose