Paragon Vertical Corporation, which is a subsidiary of e-Meralco Ventures Inc. (EMVI) of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) group, is planning equity sell-down for 34.9-percent of its equity to affiliate Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), the country’s telecom giant which is also under the management control of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Paragon indicated that PLDT is proposing to inject P2.1 billion investment in Radius Telecom Inc., which is a subsidiary of Paragon under EMVI.

The propounded acquisition representing 2,491,516 shares of common stock, according to Meralco, will enable PLDT to corner 34.9% shareholdings in Radius Telecom, which is a telecommunications company under the utility firm’s core businesses.

The deal, the utility firm emphasized, will be subject to “due diligence and execution of definitive agreements” prior to finalization of any firm decision on the planned equity purchase.

Essentially, Radius is into the provision of enhanced telecommunications services to enterprise customers; as well as broadband internet services to residential end-users.

Leaning on its robust fiber optic network that is underpinned by extensive partnership with international carriers, Radius is currently catering to local and international customers for internet services, data management as well as on the provision of cloud solutions for corporate end-users.

For its internet services, the offer of Radius Telecom to customers would range from direct internet access as well as broadband; while data services could delve with point-to-point, point to multipoint and rooted-multipoint connections.

For cloud services that are mainly targeted for businesses, Radius Telecom has been dangling its “cloud express” solution as well as its software-defined network (SD-WAN) that could aid companies on their digital transformations.

As could be gleaned from recent developments, it is apparent that the Pangilinan-led conglomerate has been reinforcing the convergence of its telecommunications businesses – with Meralco-affiliated companies strategically expanding their business presence into the telco and information technology (IT) sectors.

It is also worth noting that another Meralco affiliate – MIESCOR Infrastructure Development Corporation (MIDC) – had already plunged into the common telco tower business, propping up that venture initially with acquisition of existing tower facilities and the onward plan is to build additional towers to be leased to its core clients.