source: forbes.comPhilippine mobile phone firm Smart Communications Inc, a unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT), said on Tuesday it had acquired a 30 percent stake in Dublin-based Blue Ocean Wireless (BOW) for 15.9 million US dollars.
Smart president and chief executive Napoleon Nazareno said BOW provides call and text messaging services to seafarers.
'There are about 1.2 million seafarers around the world and 40 percent of them are Filipinos,' he told reporters.
PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan told reporters in a briefing Tuesday that Smart has the option to raise its stake in Blue Ocean up to 49 percent within the next three years.
PLDT, with a market capitalization of about 11 billion dollars, reported on Tuesday a 13.2 percent year-on-year rise in first-half core net profit to 17.2 billion pesos, as gains in its cellular phone business offset a drop in dollar-linked revenue due to a strong peso.
PLDT, which is controlled by Hong Kong-listed conglomerate First Pacific Co and partly owned by Japan's NTT Group, lifted its full-year core earnings guidance to 33-34 billion pesos from 32-32 billion previously, following its strong first-half results.Linkback:
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