Bilyonaryo - Business

‘Di lang si Musk! Masayoshi Son, Japan’s KDDI coveting PH broadband market – DFNN’s Raymon Garcia

February 13, 2021

Bilyonaryo.com

DFNN chairman Ramon Garcia Jr. revealed that Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, Japan’s second richest, as well as Japan’s KDDI group have expressed strong interest in coming into the country not just as a partner but as a major investor.

“Son’s Softbank Group has been looking actively for a group to partner with. Same with KDDI who told me their interest during a state visit in a meeting with a former Senator (Diet) member,” said Garcia

Garcia, a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands, said the biggest roadblock to Softbank and KDDI’s entry was the 40 percent cap on foreign ownership in public utilities under the 1987 Constitution.

But Garcia is hopeful that Congress would provide the foreign telecommunication firms with a way to get a controlling stake in a mobile and broadband firm without waiting charter change to relax foreign equity limits.

The House has already approved a bill which will amend the 85-year old Public Services to exclude telecommunications from the constitutional cap on foreign equity. A similar bill is currently pending in the Senate.

Garcia said easing foreign investments in telecommunication would boost the reliability and availability of both mobile and fixed communication in the country.

Softbank is a Japanese conglomerate which grew rapidly after Son acquired the telecom unit of Vodafone in 2006 and turned it into one of Japan’s leading telecom provider with a 25 percent market share. KDDI’s mobile brand, au, holds a 32 percent share of the mobile market.

NTT Docomo, Japan’s biggest among its top 3 carriers, has a 20.35 percent share in PLDT (including the share of NTT Communications).

Masayoshi Son taunts critics, touts ‘goose with golden eggs’ as Softbank profit soars

Related News Tags: Japan, KDDI, Masayoshi Son, PH broadband market, Raymon Garcia

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