PLDT has completed the sale of its telco towers for a total of PHP 39.2 billion.
Only a month after the telco announced that its companies had inked agreements to sell its tower assets, Smart and Digitel completed the sale of 3,012 telecom towers.
The company stated in April that it would sell 5,907 tower assets and related infrastructure to EdgePoint and edotco Group.
Additional sales are likely in the coming months, according to the PLDT group, with the final closing scheduled for Q4 2022.
Following the sale, Smart signed a 10-year lease agreement with the companies that bought the towers. They expect to save Php2.6 billion per year, primarily from telco tower maintenance and operations costs.
The sale and leaseback of PLDT’s towers is in line with the Philippine government’s “common tower policy,” which allows carriers to lease towers rather than build their own in order to save money on upkeep. As a result, it may be possible to reduce the cost of telecommunications services.