LibertyTel chief may run Express Telecom too
By Lenie Lectura, Business Mirror | 03/10/2009 8:12 AM
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The newly appointed chief operating officer (COO) of Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc. may also run the operations of Express Telecommunications Co. Inc., as both phone firms are expected to be merged soon.
Anastacio Martirez, former marketing whiz of Smart Communications Inc., said he would rather let San Miguel Corp. (SMC) president and Liberty chairman Ramon Ang make the appropriate announcement.
“I don’t want to say anything on that. I don’t want Mr. Ang to be preempted on something which he has the right to announce,” said Martirez in an interview. Ang, for his part, declined to comment.
Martirez joined Liberty last February 4 after having held the positions of chief mobile head and head of consumer business at Smart for 12 years, and the position of chief executive officer for the Jakarta-based PT Smart Telecom.
He has vast experience in wireless broadband internet as well as successful experience in launching and general management of communications services, from rollout, network operations, customer service to sales and marketing.
“It is expected that he will also be appointed as one of the top officials in Express Telecom, especially now that SMC announced last week that it makes sense to merge the two companies,” said a source.
The board of directors has decided to keep the position of the Liberty president vacant in the meantime. “Knowing SMC, they want to appoint someone of their own choice. Martirez is going to be the COO also of Express Telecom. With his expertise, he can easily run both companies,” said the source.
Ang said last week that they were now close to acquiring Express Telecom as talks are in the final stages. If SMC acquires control of Liberty and Express Telecom, then both firms can be merged, Ang said.
Another source said it will be Liberty and not SMC that is acquiring Express Telecom. This, however, has remained unconfirmed, but industry experts said this could be the likely scenario.
“If I were to do it, Liberty is going to be the entity that SMC and QTel will be using to offer cellular and wireless broadband services. Liberty will be buying Express Telecom,” said the source.
Liberty Telecoms is a holding company engaged in providing telecommunications products and services through subsidiaries. It offers wireless voice services, connectivity services, internet, international lease line, international frame relay, private internet protocol services and video teleconference services.
It recently partnered with Qatar’s major telecommunications company Qatar Telecom. Qtel, as the company is known, is an integrated telecommunications player, which offers services to 16 countries with a total population coverage of 550 million and a subscriber base of 55 million. It is majority-owned by the state of Qatar.
“Whatever we will be doing in the telecommunications business, QTel will also be our partner,” Ang said last week.
SMC is eyeing a bigger stake in Liberty from the current 20 percent to 60 percent. “The moment the parties officially agree on whatever is needed or the potential offer is needed, our foreign partner, QTel, and SMC will do whatever is necessary,”
SMC’s entry into Liberty is still not finalized. At the moment, Liberty is already 27.12 percent owned by QTel. The foreign telco acquired these shares through subsidiary wi-Tribe Asia Ltd.
In December last year, Liberty issued 175,113,191 preferred shares or 9.9 percent to Wi-Tribe Asia and 300,382,336 million preferred shares, or 17 percent, to locally incorporated White Dawn Solutions Holdings Inc. The equity was sold for P3.20 per share or a total of P1.52 billion.
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