DITO CME Holdings Corp.DITO

Clarification of the article entitled “Dennis Uy’s exit plan gets rolling: Udenna’s stake in DITO shrinks from 59% to 7% after entry of shadowy Singapore group”

We write in connection with the article entitled “Dennis Uy’s exit plan gets rolling: Udenna’s stake in DITO shrinks from 59% to 7% after entry of shadowy Singapore group” posted in Bilyonaryo.com on October 18, 2023, which reported in part that:

“Duterte crony Dennis Uy appears to be on the exit path as his once-dominant position in DITO CME Holdings has eroded substantially with the infusion of capital from two enigmatic Singaporean entities with ambiguous backgrounds.

. . . .

Udenna Corp., Uy’s financially strained holding company, has seen its stake dwindle from 58.5 percent to 9.8 percent.

Meanwhile, Dennison Holdings, another Uy-affiliated firm, maintained its stake at two Percent.

A Babbler said Summit Telco and Xterra paid a total of P2.2 billion ($39 million) to buy new shares to partially compensate for Uy’s failure to raise the $500 million capital commitment to Dito Telecommunity, the third telco player majority owned by DITO CME with China Telecom (ChinaTel) as its foreign partner.

It should be noted that shareholdings held by brokerage firms under the Philippine Central Depository Inc. surged to 12.45 billion shares or 76.7 percent of DITO CME, up from the previous figure of 5.451 billion shares or 38.8 percent.

Armstrong Securities is responsible for the substantial increase of approximately seven billion shares.

Rumors of Uy’s exit plan emerged shortly after DITO CME’s telco unit secured a $3.9 billion, 15-year long-term loan facility last month following years of negotiations.

. . . .

Babbler, mentioned that a dealmaker linked to Summit Telco and Xterra is actively seeking an investor to cover Uy’s unfulfilled investment commitment to DITO Telecommunity. Given this situation, Babbler said Uy will need to decide whether to retain or divest his remaining stake in DITO CME.

. . . .

The writing on the wall for Uy’s departure became clearer when he resigned as CEO of DITO CME while retaining his role as chairman.

. . . .”

In this regard, the Company wishes to clarify the foregoing article as follows:

First, it is inaccurate that Udenna Corporation’s ("Udenna") beneficial ownership in DITO CME Holdings Corp. (“DITO CME” or the “Company”) has already reduced from 59% to 9.8% (or even 7%). In the Company’s Public Ownership Report as of 30 Sept 2023, Udenna beneficially owns 11,199,500,000 shares of DITO CME, consisting of 1,242,323,316 certificated shares, or 7.65% of DITO CME, and 9,957,176,684 scripless shares held under PCD Nominee Corporation. Thus, as of 30 September 2023, Udenna still beneficially owns 69.68% of the issued and outstanding capital stock of DITO CME through certificated and scripless shares.

Second, with regard to Summit Telco Corporation (“Summit”) and Xterra Ventures Pte. Ltd. (“Xterra”), while they are recent investors in DITO CME, they are not considered the largest shareholders. As of 30 September 2023, Summit owns 9.79% of the issued and outstanding capital stock of DITO CME and Xterra owns 3.76%.

Third, the Company wishes to deny the statement in the article that “Dennis Uy appears to be on the exit path”. There is no truth to such statement as Udenna continues to hold more than majority of the shares in DITO CME.

Fourth, the Company also wishes to clarify that there are no current plans for Dennis Uy and/or Udenna to divest its remaining stake in DITO CME. As mentioned above, Udenna continues to hold majority shareholdings DITO CME. If Udenna has any plans to divest, the necessary disclosures will be made at the appropriate time in accordance with the disclosure rules.

Finally, the Company also wishes to clarify also that Dennison Holdings Corporation is not an affiliated company of Udenna and has not been as such since August 2021.

None