Morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Clare Chin, Head of Investor Relations at Axiata Group Berhad. Thank you for standing by and welcome to Axiata's investor call on EDOTCO's acquisition of tower portfolio from PLDT to be the largest independent tower co in the Philippines. Today, we have with us Dato' Mohd Izzaddin Idris, Axiata Group CEO, and Vivek Sood on my left, Axiata Group CFO. From EDOTCO, dialing in from Manila, Mohamed Adlan Ahmad Tajudin, EDOTCO CEO, Annis Sheikh Mohamed, EDOTCO CFO, as well as Anthony Crisostomo, Director of M&A at EDOTCO. There will be a short presentation followed by a Q&A session. Lastly, two housekeeping reminders. You will be on mute throughout the presentation, and also note that we will end the call promptly at 11:00 A.M. Without further ado, let me hand over the call to Dato' Mohd Izzaddin for his welcoming remarks.
Thank you, Clare. Good morning, everybody. I'm heartened to see here something like 78 attendees, Clare. I didn't know you're dishing out free gifts this morning. Thank you all for joining this meeting. We tried to organize this at very short notice so that everyone has a good perspective of the transaction that was consummated yesterday, where EDOTCO is acquiring something like 3,000 towers from PLDT companies to be the largest leading independent tower company in the Philippines. As you may be aware, we started the foray into the Philippines some two to three years ago. We have a wholly owned subsidiary now in that country.
This will enable us to jump-start that, and scale up actually the business and the opportunities in the Philippines. This transaction is valued at about $800 million, PHP 42 billion, around about MYR 3.4 billion . This is pretty, it's like needle moving in so far as EDOTCO is concerned because in a way we are de-risking from some of the larger markets and larger exposures we have. Number two, it is not Axiata MNO, and therefore, you know, there's less reliance on Axiata's revenue or Axiata MNO revenue. There are also the opportunity in this business. It was a very keen bidding process. At the outset, there was something like 16 bidders for the two portfolios. We were success.
We are successful in portfolio number two. More details of the transaction and the rationale as well as the opportunities and what we see in this acquisition, I'd like to invite Adlan, the CEO of EDOTCO, to do the presentation. Adlan?
Thank you, Dato'. Good morning, everyone. Mabuhay. Greetings from the Philippines.
Ah.
Yeah.
You're speaking already.
I think we are happy to announce that we've signed a deal with PLDT to acquire 2,973 towers with a commitment of an additional 750 build to suit. This is a transformational deal for EDOTCO given that it's strengthening our position as independent tower company pan Asia. Also more importantly, increasing our exposure in the emerging markets, right? I think you would also see in the later slides as well that is a strong counterparty, but with very solid MSA still a lease back MSA as well.
I mean, you probably can see these are some of the better terms that we have against some of the other MSAs that we have in our other footprints. Yeah. Thirdly, Philippines has always been a strategic market for us, right? You know that there's high growth potential opportunity. More importantly, I think you see that they are probably today at an inflection point where independent tower companies are starting to make a presence. That probably would drive infrastructure sharing, tower sharing a lot more and accelerating the tower sharing a lot more in the years to come, right? That gives us a lot of opportunity.
We also believe that today the co-location is at one, no sharing, but with the ITC market coming into space, co-location will be accelerated. Philippines as well, this will enable us to unlock significant value, right, to EDOTCO ahead of our future monetization opportunity. What's important is, with this acquisition, we are operating with scale, and we are the leading tower company in Philippines. Can we go to the next slide? I will take you through a little bit in terms of the transaction overview. Dato' had mentioned 2,000.
We still have a leaseback of 2,973 towers at $800 million with a commitment of 750 build to suit by PLDT. However, there's a few points that I wanna raise, right? In terms of the MSA terms, right? If you look, this is a 10 + 5 + 5 deal, right? Essentially is close to 20 years deal. I think what is more important is actually on the lease rate that we are collecting here, right? It's about PHP 100,000-PHP 120,000 for a tower and power deal, right?
In this case, electricity and fuel is pass through. If you were to compare this against the lease rates with other markets, right? This is on average around $2,200, right? Per month. If you were to compare, for example, in the previous deal, last deal in Indonesia and all that, Indonesia lease rates are probably around $700-$800 per month. You see the gap, the real gap that we are getting. The lease rate that we are getting from here as compared to probably the last deal that you see in Indonesia. In addition, there's also a 3% escalation escalator on the O&M part, right?
Which out of the hundred is around 30,000, right? This definitely comparing across is probably one of the better MSA terms that we are probably getting, right? From a deal perspective, this is expected to close 1,500 in batches. 1,500 by Q2 2022, and the balance in small batches towards the end by the end of 2022, right? Post this transaction, we would have actually 54,000 towers that we own and manage across nine countries across Asia. Yeah. If you can go to the next slide. This give a little bit about the portfolio of assets that we are acquiring.
If you look at the map here, I mean, essentially the areas that we are acquiring is actually from Metro Manila downwards, yeah. Southern Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and Palawan, right? This essentially is complementing our existing footprint that we have, right? In the Metro Manila, Rizal and North Luzon. Essentially with this portfolio, it makes us a nationwide player, yeah. A nationwide player with scale, and now we are the leading ITCs in the Philippines, right? With this acquisition. Second point that you see here is this will also give us the first mover advantage, right? Because the rest of the other, I would say, smaller ITCs to a certain extent, are predominantly operating in the north.
Without scale, I think it's always a chicken and egg situation for them to move out to the southern part of the country. With us, with the scale and all this, we'll definitely have the preferred partner for PLDT to probably build and other MNO perhaps to probably build in and progress in this area. Secondly, I think if you look at this, the quality of assets that we are getting in this are also better quality assets. Because more than 90% of these assets are three, four-legged GBTs. Of which more than 70% have got height of more than 40 meters.
What that means is, it is suitable for co-location, and it also allows for higher possibility to cater for higher tenancies, right? I think with this, it actually is a game changer for us in the Philippines, right? Given that, from a small player in the northern part of Luzon, we suddenly become a nationwide player, which at this point, we are the only one that have a nationwide play, right? If you move to the the.
If you look at one of the things of the southern part portfolio that is probably worth mentioning as well is the lease rates in this area are probably in the southern part area. Also a lot cheaper as compared to the northern part, right? Having said that, we know that the operating costs in the southern area are probably slightly higher as compared to the north, given the widespread of the area. Even with that, the savings that we are seeing from the lease rental will more than offset the higher operating cost that we're seeing in the southern area, right?
Given that the rental lease rates are probably making up the big chunk of your total OpEx, yeah. That's why you probably see a higher margin coming from the southern portfolio. If you can move on to the next slide. Here you can see some of the acquisition rationale. I think some of it we have touched you know the robust macroeconomics in Philippines. I think more important for EDOTCO, we are enhancing our presence in the emerging market with strengthening our Pan-Asia platform.
You know, in the Philippines, for example, the cost of capital are actually much lower as compared to some of the other markets that we are present and which is closer to even to Malaysia. This will sort of manage our risk profile to a certain extent, right? We are the leading ITCs in the Philippines. Of course, there's significant build-to-suit growth and co-location. We'll talk about that at a later slide as well. Again, I think one of our key strength is that we are able to leverage on our operational excellence that we have in our operation in the nine other countries that we are already present, yeah. We'll talk a little bit about that as well, right.
It's also about diversification and optimization of our portfolio, right. Maybe let's move on to the next slide. As you can see, the Philippines as a country have shown a significant improvement in terms of progress as well, in terms of its macroeconomic front, GDP growth, right. In the next three to four years, they are looking at around 7.7% growth. In terms of rating, there has been a continuous improvement. Today, they are BBB+. They are already above the investment grade. What is also more important to see that more in the region, the Philippines have got the highest population growth, right?
With an increasing urban population percentage, right. This is growing at a very fast rate. All this indicates that with all this progress, we are seeing that potential growth coming out from the income level of people in Philippines. That would probably drive more consumption as far as telecommunication services. That will probably drive more of the infrastructure that's probably required to cater for that. Yeah. Next slide. Okay. Philippines is a strategic market for us. If you look at Philippines today and you compare it with countries around the region from a coverage perspective, today they are probably lagging behind some of the peers in the region, right?
If you look from a population coverage perspective, they are probably close to 90%. However, from a geographical coverage, they are probably close to only about 40%, right? There is a lot more room for expansion and growth that we are seeing in Philippines, right. You can see as well, right, in Philippines that in terms of the how mobile data traffic are growing year-on-year in Philippines. As you know that they are very high in terms of the. In fact, they have got the higher usage of social media in specific with regards to Facebook and Instagram, right.
It's one of the highest usage globally, Philippines, and this is typically dominated by the younger generation. All this tells us that there is significant room for growth in terms of the telecommunication industry in Philippines moving forward, yeah. At the same time, I think they have already started rolling out 5G. I think today it's still very small, but this would also be one of the other catalysts that's probably gonna drive the infrastructure growth that's required. Yeah. With Philippines today, if you look at our portfolio, it will sort of rebalance our portfolio a little bit from frontier to emerging market, right.
In addition, if you look at with the addition of Philippines, it sort of replace with the at the size that they have, it sort of replace the portfolio that we have in Myanmar, that's currently going through some challenges. Yeah. You know the situation in Myanmar. Hence, our presence in Philippines is gonna be important in terms of optimizing and diversifying our portfolio. Yeah. Next. Just a little bit of a comparison where we are. Where do we stand as compared to the other global tower companies once we complete this transaction. Post-transaction with 54,000 towers, we are the sixth largest independent tower company.
Of course, regionally in Asia, we are Asia excluding India and China, we are probably the largest, right? Next. Okay. What are we trying to reflect here is to show the growth potential that we would potentially be seeing in Philippines market, yeah. Today with the, we have approximately 100 towers with about 300 build-to-suit orders, predominantly growth. With the SLB and the build-to-suit commitment that we have, that will take us to around 4,200 towers, right? That means that with the existing 25,000 towers that we have, Philippines has, the industry has today, we have approximately 17 market share, 17% market share.
Based on the target that is set by DICT, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, by 2026, they are targeting to go to around 66,000 towers. That means there will be an addition of around 41,000 towers over the next four years. Given that we have the first-mover advantage, assuming that we are able to take 40%-50% of the share over the next three to four years, I think that would probably bring our market share over 30%, right? I mean, you see this growth that the regulators are pushing, actually pretty aggressive, right? From 25,000 towers, they are looking to add close to probably around 10,000 towers a year, right?
A pretty aggressive target that has been set by the regulators, right, for the industry players. There's a lot of opportunity and growth opportunity that we see coming up. Next. I think we have already talked about this. This is the assets that we are acquiring. As I mentioned, it's a good quality assets with high follow potential because we see that less duplicated sites and less parallel sites that we see in the southern area, right, on this, right? It's a practical problem that is also very critical from operational standpoint of view in this area as well. Permitting are a lot easier than getting permits in the northern part of the country, northern part of Luzon, yeah.
I mean, that will help accelerate in terms of your delivery timeline for MNOs to roll out in this area. Next slide please. We know that we are able to leverage, once we have done this acquisition, our focus is to really quickly integrate this operation into the group and see how we can realize the synergy very quickly. You know, our business model today centered around shared service centralization where shared IT platforms, even in terms of innovation, a center of excellence is all on a shared basis, right? With this, we are able to leverage on all these shared services.
For example, to service and cater to the needs of the Philippines, EDOTCO Philippines, and to a certain extent, at very minimal cost, right? Once we are able to integrate this operation quickly into the EDOTCO group operation, we are pretty confident that we are able to realize the synergies coming out of this, right? That would probably help in terms of driving a lower cost structure in EDOTCO Philippines, yeah, as compared to probably some of the other ITCs that probably have a standalone basis. Yeah. Last but not least, I think one of the key advantage that we have is in terms of coming out with an integrated innovative solution, right?
Predominantly today in terms of tower design, also in terms of a power solution that we have. Because this will essentially give us the competitive advantage as we're able to leverage on new technology, for example, to drive our operating cost down. Yeah. By leveraging on what we have at the group, we believe that we are able to extract synergy from the operation in the in-country operation. Can we move on to the next slide? We can see, I mean, what does it mean, right? By adding Philippines into the portfolio, you see, from tower count today, I mean, it will account for approximately 6% of the total group tower count. From a revenue standpoint as well, right?
With Philippines today, post-transaction, post-closing, I think Philippines will account 30% of the total group revenue, right? If you look at the size, it's quite similar to Myanmar's revenue. Given what happened in Myanmar, it is quite important that we diversify our portfolio. Philippines can easily step into the Myanmar shoes to cater for whatever gap that possibly might arise, right? From an EBITDA standpoint, I think Philippines will contribute close to 16% of the total group EBITDA, right? Which is gonna be quite sizable to a certain extent. I think Philippines as well, given what we see, how they progress, and I think we would actually have a lower cost of capital in Philippines.
Which is actually closer to other emerging markets, countries like Malaysia, Thailand, and so on, right? I think if you look at the purchase consideration at the lower cost of capital today, right? The EV per tower based on our transaction today is at around $270,000. I think looking at the better MSA terms that we have with a longer tenure tenancy contract that we're signing with Glo, the $270,000 is quite comparable or quite a fair and reasonable as compared to some of the recent deals that we see.
Probably if you were to compare with STP deal in Indonesia, which was the most recent one. Yeah. Next slide, please. This is probably formal in terms of how we look at this thing, right? This is looking at 2021 pro forma, right? From a number of towers. I think in terms of the portfolio itself, I think the PLDT portfolios carry EBITDA margin of close to 76%. 0.4%. With this addition, it's actually resulting in a higher EBITDA margin post-transaction to the overall group, right? I think similarly for EDOTCO it's a chunky contribution to revenue as well as EBITDA to the group. Yeah, next. Yeah. I think that's all I have for the presentation on EDOTCO. Maybe I will pass to Vivek. Vivek, to run through the presentation on the-
Thank you, Adlan. I think just continuing with our focused execution strategy of Axiata 5.0. If you recall in, I think, 2020, we talked about this strategy. Two areas which I will focus here on is the growth areas and the portfolio optimization value elimination. I think this transaction fits into the clear strategy of Axiata 5.0 on these two headings. If you look at our growth, we've said mobile growth is going to be low single digit. If our future growth has to come, it has to come through adjacencies, which is infrastructure business, digital business, enterprise business, and fixed broadband business or fiber business. Those are the areas of growth for us in future, and this is one of the transactions where EDOTCO strategy is pretty much aligned to that.
In addition to that, we are also looking at how these growth areas or adjacencies eventually translate into value creation for us and potential monetization at appropriate time, for us. I think, those are the two areas which we will continue to focus on, and pretty much in line with what our strategy of Axiata 5.0 is. If I can go to the next slide. I think this pretty much explains what I said just now, where we see these four blocks. As you go up the ladder in these four blocks, we see higher growth coming in digital, followed by enterprise infrastructure and fixed. Some of the actions which has been taken this year are in line with our strategy.
One is mobile, focused on the market consolidation which is translating into the merger in Malaysia. You know, there's a merger happening in Indonesia, which also helps in that sense. The fixed strategy is coming through the acquisition of Link Net, which I think the process is currently underway. As far as infrastructure is concerned, I think we've done around four transactions. Three pretty much in the last four months, buying nearly 1,000 towers in Malaysia, 1,000 towers in Indonesia, and now these 3,000-odd towers in PLDT in Philippines. That's part of the infrastructure focus. Enterprise, we continue to do at this point in time bite-size acquisitions, which is supporting the growth of a enterprise as well as the organic position on the enterprise.
We would see further investments going into this area for us to continue growing the opportunities on enterprise. Digital business, I think clearly we are looking at converting these two businesses, ADA and BFS, over a period of next couple of years into becoming unicorn on their own and potential opportunities to monetize the investments made in these businesses here. Next slide. I think on a pro forma basis, we do see marginal impact coming on profitability, essentially coming out of the fact that at this point in time it has been 100% funded through debt, which may not be a position in medium terms. We would look at getting investor at the project level or even at the holding company level to support the investment into this acquisition.
Consequently, there has been some impact on our leverage level, which moves up from 2.56 at the end of last year to around 2.87, essentially coming out of the same reason which I explained earlier, which is that this is 100% funded through debt. Next. I think that's pretty much we wanted to talk about the EDOTCO perspective as well as Axiata perspective. Just to summarize, quickly I can do that and then maybe Dato' can eventually summarize. I think it is pretty much in line with our strategy, which we had alluded to the investors sometime in 2020. Dato', to you, maybe you want to summarize the-
Yes. Thank you, Vivek. That's the short presentation by Adlan to the perspective and the approach strategy that we thought through in approaching this particular acquisition. As you can see, the opportunity, the economy, the markets, the penetration rates of mobile penetration in Philippines is encouraging. Vivek alluded to the suggestion or Vivek suggested that we could or we are looking at bringing investors. As I've mentioned at the outset, there were 16 bidders that started this process, that were involved in this beginning of the process. As it turns out, as the process progressed, a few of them were approaching us because, you know, they couldn't make the cut, so to speak.
Now, we are certainly in a good position to, well, perhaps bring in one or two investors at the project company level. Vivek mentioned the holding company level, but that's more the Philippine investment holding company level, not at EDOTCO Group level, yeah. Just to be clear. We're in a sweet spot in terms of trying to, you know, there are many interested parties for the assets. We, you know, as it turns out, PLDT accelerated their timeline, their process, and, you know, we decided to close this first before bringing other partners in due course. That's one consideration, if you like, of this transaction from the holding Axiata's perspective.
Now perhaps, you know, we have two questions, two hands up. I'll pass over to Clare to take charge.
Thank you, Dato'. Just a reminder, there will be two options to ask your question. Firstly, raise your hand. Click on the Raise Your Hand button, wait for your name to be called out, unmute your line, ask your question, then remember to mute your line again thereafter. The second option is, again, to type your question out in the meeting chat box. We do see some hands up. As a start, let's go to Piyush from HSBC. Please unmute your line, Piyush.
Hello.
Piyush?
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes.
Yeah, Piyush, we can hear you. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah, hi. Good morning. Congratulations to the entire team on this deal. Few questions. Firstly, if we step back and look at the landscape in Philippines, you mentioned there are 25,000 towers at the industry level. Can you also share what is the tenancy ratio at the industry level, and what is your realistic expectation of towers and tenancy over the next two to three years in Philippines? The portfolio which you have acquired around 3,000 towers, are you already in discussion with potential new tenants? Like, what is your expectation for this portfolio of tenancy ratio in next two to three years? The third one was on the EPS impact you have given, pro forma impact. What is the cash impact of this deal?
Because there is an element of D&A. If you can just elaborate what is the cash accretion post this deal and what is the cost of debt which you have assumed to calculate this pro forma numbers. Thank you.
Adlan, do you wanna take those questions?
Thank you, Piyush. If you look at the industry today, the tenancy ratio is one, Piyush. I mean, the industry don't share the infrastructure today. I think over the last one year or so with the introduction of the common tower for infrastructure policy, I think we actually see the emergence of independent tower company. You can see that MNOs are starting to farm out the build to independent tower company. That means with the emergence of tower company, I mean, they are pretty open to sharing.
That's why you see that this deal will be the first step, right, towards building a sizable independent tower market to serve the MNO as well as the consumer in Philippines per se, right? You would expect that these numbers, the tenancy ratio to start increasing after this, right? I think if you look at the, maybe Anthony, you can give the detail. I think in the next three years, I think we were looking at a tenancy ratio of about 1.3, right? In the next three years.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so-
Yeah. If I can add maybe a bit of detail. Thank you, Adnan. We are looking at...
I think we lost Anthony.
Can you hear me clear?
Okay, that's better. Thank you.
Okay. Yeah, just to add on the colo ratio assumptions that we are looking at are relatively conservative. We are, you know, projecting 1.1 in 2022, 1.2 next year, 1.3 the following year. Obviously, there's a lot more upside than that, and we feel that the assumptions that we've taken are relatively conservative, relative to other data points that we have. And you know, obviously there's going to go a lot higher than that and to trend towards two over time and even on the build-to-suit to go mildly above two.
Okay, Piyush, can you repeat the question, Piyush, on the you think?
That was on the.
Yeah, sure.
Non-cash impact.
Yeah, the cash impact of the deal and the cost of debt which you have kind of assumed in the pro forma numbers.
The cost of debt that we have assumed, I think, is about 5% for the U.S. dollar funding. I think, when you talk about the cash impact from a depreciation perspective, based on the pro forma, in ringgit amount, the impact of the depreciation is about close to MYR 240 million.
Got it. If I may ask, like on the colo, PLDT yesterday mentioned of the colo discount. Can you confirm like what is the agreement on the co-location discount to the new tenants on the first and the second tenant?
Yeah.
Also if I may ask, like what is the maintenance CapEx on these towers, recurring maintenance CapEx? Thank you.
I think, Piyush, this. Yes, there is a colo discount. I mean, I think that's similar in terms of business model that we have in some of our other markets, and even what we see in Malaysia as well, right? There's a 20% colo discount on that we'll be able to enjoy by PLDT if a new tenant comes in, right? That only applies to probably MNO, right? And for non-MNOs and all that 20% does not apply.
Got it. Thank you, Adlan. Just final one. Maintenance CapEx of these towers on a recurring basis.
Just a moment. One second, yeah.
Yeah. We assume, I mean, for build to suit CapEx, you know, we are talking about, you know, close to $100,000, just under $100,000 per tower. The colo CapEx.
No maintenance CapEx, Anthony. Maintenance.
Gonna be. Yeah. Let me come back to you.
Piyush will come back to you.
Yeah. Let me come back. Sure.
Sure. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
Thank you. Let's move on to Isaac from Affin. Isaac, please, your questions.
Hi. Good morning. I have two set of questions, please. For the first set of questions on the government aspiration to have 66,000 towers, are they giving out any incentive, and what are they doing to encourage these new builds? That's number one. Broadly speaking, how much would be the CapEx required for a new tower? I mean, broadly speaking. That's question number one, please.
Okay. At this point in time, we have not seen any incentive coming from the government to drive this coverage, to drive MNO to expand. Yeah. However, there is a push from the government to make sure that the quality of service is up to a certain level, right? They are driving it, no incentive, but driving it from a quality of service and pushing the MNO to meet the quality of service. Yeah. I presume at some point in time, given that if they are pushing this to make sure, I think there will be a more, I would say, a push in terms of either new regulation and all that to drive MNO to improve the coverage, this coverage gap, right? At this point in time, I think we have not seen any. I think from a CapEx perspective, it depends on the height, but for typical GBT CapEx, ground-based tower CapEx, it ranges from $65,000 to about $90,000.
Okay. Thank you. Second set of questions is on the accounting front. I have noticed that the accounting basis, the pro forma P&L impact based on the presentation slides and the announcement is slightly different on the EBITDA. Can you just confirm that the pro forma EBITDA of over MYR 200 million, it's the more accurate version, if I may use the word. Sorry, and just one more question. Can I just? Yeah, sorry.
No, go on, please.
Another question. Can I just confirm that just now you were guiding that the depreciation is MYR 240 million? Answer to PH's question.
D&A. Yeah, D&A.
Correct.
D&A is MYR 150 as per the announcement, right? More or less.
MYR 150 million.
Yeah. 150.
Yeah.
MYR 150 million.
MYR 150. Thank you. All right. In terms of EBITDA, based on the announcement, page eight is more like MYR 98, while the presentation slide, it's over MYR 200. Which one would be the more-
Just
Accurate picture?
Just to clarify, EBITDA there in the announcement is net of expenses, which would also be netting of lease payments, whereas the 227 or whatever the number was there was pre-lease payments. There's a difference in that number.
All right. Thank you. That's it for me. I will turn back to the queue. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Isaac. Let's move on quickly. I think next in line is Foong from CIMB. Or sorry, it's Alex from AM. Alex?
Hello, can you hear me? Yeah.
Yes.
I've two questions. The first is, you mentioned that because of D&A, this acquisition is going to be slightly negative to the group's earnings, as well, as far as EBITDA, EDOTCO is concerned. I'm just wondering, when do you expect break even on net profit level? And what kind of assumptions would you be looking at in terms of tenancy ratio and perhaps your actual rental rates? That's my first question. My second question is regarding your debt levels. It's moving towards a three times level, which I think what you mentioned before in the past, it used to be your kind of a cap level.
What are you planning to do, you know, once it reach that? Are you planning to fast-forward your listing for EDOTCO? That's my second question. My third question, could you provide us a bit of a color on the kind of a pressure on the rental rates for infrastructural projects? I think Indonesia, I mean, there were renegotiations by clients, right? To bring down rental rates. I'm just wondering in the Philippines, you know, is that the current situation now?
You're referring to land lease, yeah?
Yeah. Correct.
Land lease rental, yeah. Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah. I think from a D&A perspective, PAT is dilutive. I think it's gonna be negative in the early years, right? We are looking at PAT neutral at around turning around at around year five, yeah. Then secondly, you were asking on the debt level. Yes. I think today, if you look, the debt level is above four, right? 4.2, right? As a result of this transaction. Of course, one of the things that we are working on now is on the partners, as explained earlier, right? Be it at the JV level or even at the whole co level.
By bringing on a partner, assuming that we're still taking 51%, if we take a 51% controlling stake, the debt level at EDOTCO will probably reduce to approximately around 3.7 x, right? On top of that, I think, there are a number of portfolio optimization exercise that we will also be doing to probably see how we can leverage to bring down that debt more, right? However, having said that, right, I mean, at that level, at the EDOTCO level as an infrastructure company, yeah, quite common that we can go up to 4 x or so, right? I mean, as compared to the other infrastructure fund. However, we understand the challenges, for example, and that impact at the group level, right? Then,
No, I think.
Yeah. Vivek, yeah.
No, I think also in the context of Axiata, I think, you know, we are looking at different options of deleveraging the balance sheet, which gets created because of this transaction. As you know, you know, we are, as Adlan mentioned, we would look at monetization of this over a period of time, as well as looking at investors coming at the company level, optimizing some of the portfolio which is there. In addition to that, there would be the opportunities of monetization of the digital businesses as we go along. Also we are setting up certain guardrails or a capital structures across all operating companies, which would ensure that the leverage levels are pretty much contained at those operating company levels.
On your next question, Alex, on the rental rate. I think in Philippines, I think rental are actually signed either on a yearly basis, right? Between one to three years basis, but payments are typically done on a quarterly basis, right? That's different to probably what you see in Indonesia, where they sign a 10 years rental, or now they're moving to probably five years where payment are done up front, right? From that perspective, I think that situation in Philippines from a rental perspective is gonna be a lot more favorable.
Okay. That would mean that your rental rates would be coming down. Would that be the case?
Well, it depends.
Or is it-
I mean, it depends.
Okay.
I mean, there are pros and cons, right? When you lock in a slightly longer term versus a shorter term, right? In areas that we feel that rental rates there's a high possibility that we will move up. I think that's probably that we're trying to lock in probably at a three-year period or so, right? In cases that we see that there's not much risk in terms of rent increase, then probably we'll do on a yearly basis. It depends. It's a case-by-case basis.
Can I just squeeze in one last question, and let the others have the floor? It's like, is this a prelude for Axiata to move into MNO in Philippines?
Well, let me try and answer that question. I know everyone's gonna say it's above their pay grade. No, far from it. We are pretty much comfortable with the six countries we have. As you know, the MNO business is pretty competitive. There is a third player already there that just entered with China Telecom, DITO. So, it's very, very unlikely. In fact, it's not even our consideration.
In planning for this transaction.
Okay. Thank you very much for all the answers. Thank you.
Thanks, Alex. Okay, we move on to, Foong from CIMB. Please unmute your line and ask your question.
Hi, good morning. Hope you guys can hear me. Loud and clear?
Yes.
Okay, good. Thank you so much for the call.
Yes.
Couple of questions from me. Firstly, on what you said, Adlan, just now about the transaction being PATAMI neutral, right, only in year five, which is quite far out. Given that the lease rate is actually quite high, is that a function of the low tenancy ratio for these towers? What does that mean, you know, in terms of tenancy ratio in year five? What are you expecting? Is it a function of the low cost, and you think that you can only bring down the cost over time? That's question number one.
Secondly, you mentioned also about perhaps working on bringing in some partners to come in at a JV or the whole company level and you may eventually have a 51% stake. My question here is, you know, why do we want to do that? I mean, we're not buying like 10,000 towers, right? We're buying about 3,000 towers, which is a reasonable size. So why do we want to pare down 50%-51% when, you know, if it's a good deal, we should be having a 100% stake? And should we be looking at perhaps, you know, raising funds through other means? That's question number two.
Third question, on the 750 new build-to-suit sites, when will that be awarded? And would these be immediately profitable with the commencement of leasing to PLDT? Or do we need to again see higher co-location before it's profitable? And my last question on the five plus five-year extension on the MSA, right? Is the renewal at the option of PLDT or EDOTCO? And are the lease rate also subject to revisions upon, you know, that, those extensions? I'm just wondering here how the extension option adds value to the usual ten-year lease contracts. Because normally also there would be the usual negotiations to renew. Yeah, so those are my four questions. Thank you.
Yeah. I think, Foong, I think on your first questions with regards to the PAT only at breakeven year five, right? I think one of the key drivers here is with regards to your ability to increase your co-location, right? The fact that it starts at one at the initial phase. I mean, we were looking to drive that further and in year five, I think we're looking at a co-lo at around 1.5x, right? Here's the thing, right? I mean, we think that assumption is probably conservative because why? You see that Philippines today is at an inflection point, right?
The fact that MNOs do not share towers in the past, however, that mindset is already changing. We believe that given that the expansion that we would be seeing moving forward, the MNOs and ITCs value is actually driven by sharing and co-location. We believe that will get accelerated, right? Hence, I think if you look at the assumption that we have at 1.5 in year five, given the current scenario that we're seeing in the Philippines, it's quite a prudent assumption, right? If we are able to drive that co-location much faster, then numbers would be a lot better, right?
Secondly, I think some things that, what we have not factored into the valuation as well, Foong, is with regards to synergy. We believe that we are able to leverage on our group strength in terms of the shared service and all the centralized functions that we have to probably reduce the cost at Philippines level. However, all this, the synergies we don't factor, right, in the valuation. If we are able to execute and realize these synergies, that possibly could be a potential upside as well, right? Your point number two, you're asking on the partner. The 51% was just a hypothetical, right?
I mean, we would because we are still looking at having control of the entity, right? And hence that's why we gave a scenario assuming that we sell down on 49%, then what would be the debt to EBITDA would be, right? However, that's something our point is we will be a controlling party. However, whether we'll sell down 10% 20%, 30%, 40%, that's something consideration that we would probably have at that point in time when the time comes, right? That was just. Thirdly, I think the build-to-suit commitment of 750, I think the first 500 commitment they committed up to 2025, and then the balance 250 will come in over the next two years, right? Having said that, while that's the commitment, we strongly believe that PLDT will be able to
To satisfy that commitment a lot earlier, given the rollout plan that they have, especially in the southern part of the country, right? Last but not least, in terms of the extension, I think the renewal, 10 + 5 + 5, the renewal is mutual on both sides. I think it's silent on rates and all that, but essentially, you know, at point of renewal, potentially there will be a rates negotiation to probably align back to market now. At that point in time.
Okay, understood. Thank you so much, Adlan.
Thank you.
Thanks, Paul. Okay, let's move on quickly to the chat questions. We have a question from Anna Zhang from T. Rowe Price. Will you be issuing public bonds to fund this transaction?
May I take this, Annis?
Sure. Okay.
Okay. You got it, yep.
No, no. I don't think we've made a decision on how the long-term funding would be done. I think the funding at this point in time is bridge finance. We would look at what are the different options there available for us, but not something we've decided as yet.
Percent of the total funding is actually based on a project finance raised at Philippine peso level. The bridge finance is actually approximately 50%, I think about $470 million in U.S. dollars, which is about eight to twelve months plus another six months extension. Yes, we are looking at more progress in terms of refinancing the same into a longer tenor for matching our cash flow profile. We haven't decided on the ultimate structure yet.
Okay. Thanks, Annis. The following question comes from Suhaili from EPF. Will there be a change to the earlier CapEx guidance for EDOTCO moving forward? Just to recap, the original CapEx guidance for EDOTCO in 2022 is about MYR 1 billion.
Annis or Adlan?
Annis, you wanna take that?
Yeah. Yeah. Well, basically, I think the CapEx guidance that we have highlighted is actually based on a BAU. As far as I think our BAU expansion, that remains. That doesn't change with regards to our CapEx guidance. With regards to this particular transaction, we are looking at an additional. The SLBs is actually based on an, you know, an estimation. But as far as the build-to-suit, I think for the year, we don't see that much change because the build-to-suit orders is gonna come in. For this year, I think it will be very minimal. We are looking at an expansion of the build-to-suit as far as the Philippines is concerned, I think over the next two to three years.
Whereby 2025, I think we are looking at a total of 500. A short answer to the question is, as far as CapEx guidance from BAU perspective, it doesn't change as far as that is concerned.
Okay. Thank you, Annis. Third question-
Annis-
Coming through from-
Yeah. Let me be clear, while we are on the CapEx, just to answer the question from Piyush earlier. The maintenance CapEx is about $8.5 million a year, you know, which is about 12%-15%.
Of, uh-
Of revenue.
Of the lease rate. Yeah. 12%-15%.
Okay
Percetange of the lease is used, yeah, maintenance CapEx.
Okay. Got it. Thanks, Anthony. Question from PNB. Amir, what are the latest updates on EDOTCO's plan listing?
Maybe I'll try and answer that, Adlan, if I may, yeah. I mean, listing is always on the cards. We've talked about this for some time. We've talked about how EDOTCO has the capacity to raise its own capital to expand its business, and that's what we've done. Of course, it depends on the markets, the choice of markets. Depends on, you know, the current situation around Myanmar. These are the factors into consideration. At the same time, we have one of our shareholders, INCJ, who I'm sure you've read in the news, is in the process of exiting. Rather than clutter and confuse the market, we are trying to sequence this appropriately. The company is always adhering and adopting good governance standards, processes, accounting systems, and what have you.
My guidance to the team is to be ready when we pull the trigger to go to the market. Right now, there's no immediate plans in the immediate term. Again, it depends on the, you know, trying to sequence some of these things. The INCJ process is something that we knew right from the beginning. INCJ, as you know, is a fund, and they have an expiration date in 2024, if I'm not mistaken. This is the timeline when they need to exit all the investments, and EDOTCO happens to be one of them.
Now, insofar as that process is concerned, there's one credible bidder that INCJ is currently negotiating with, and that would be, you know, a purchase of the entire 21% stake, thereabouts, that is being held by INCJ. It doesn't affect the company or anything like that. Yeah. The short answer to that question, Amir, is that, we, you know, we're preparing ourselves, and we have been preparing ourselves by the sheer, you know, adoption of standards and processes internally, but, there's no plans in the immediate term to go to the market just yet.
Thank you, Dato'. Let's move on to the following question also from PNB, Mohammad Sukri. How will this deal be financed? Would Axiata be injecting equity capital to EDOTCO?
Annis, you want to take that question?
Yes. Thank you, Dato'. Like what we mentioned earlier, the transaction was financed on a 50/50 basis between the financing that is raised and funded in local currency, Philippine peso. The balance, about 50%, is funded through an equity financing in U.S. dollar. That is a tenor of about 12 months with an extended extension. Of which extension when we talk about the refinancing of that facility to longer tenor facility. As far as your follow-up question is in relation to Axiata-
I'll take that, Anis.
Yeah.
The answer is that there is no recourse. Number one, there's no recourse to Axiata insofar as the borrowings that Annis just highlighted. Number two, Axiata doesn't need to put any capital into EDOTCO in whatever form. It's all a standalone by EDOTCO and debt financed by EDOTCO.
Thank you, Dato'. Thank you, Annis. We have at this point the last question from Chandru from Emirates. Could you comment on rating agency views on leverage and how much timeline are they willing to assign to bring leverage down, whether at opco or group level? Second question, also given the acquisitive appetite, is the company willing to breach the 3x net leverage metrics to further engage in more inorganic expansion?
No, so I can take that question.
Yeah. You take a quick first question and then, perhaps, try between you and Adlan, the second question.
Sure. No, we've been having regular discussions with the rating agencies. I think they do understand that the tower business as to the infra business, which has got more certainty around cash flows, should have a higher leverage than the typical mobile business. They understand, they appreciate that. They also understand what is the strategy of us going forward and how we plan to deleverage our balance sheet. I think those discussions have happened with them. In fact, before this call, we also had a call with the rating agencies. They do understand that. They also understand that there are other transactions happening at Axiata level, whether it is the merger in Malaysia or the acquisition of fixed broadband business in Indonesia. They understand that.
They haven't given any indicative discussion or I would say timelines for us to bring down the leverage. We are still continuing to have discussion with them, and I think appropriate time we will be able to inform the investors and specifically the bond investors where do we stand there. As far as the second one is concerned, Adlan, you wanna start off, then I can, you know, add on?
Yeah. Yeah. I think if you look in the last 12 months, I think we have done approximately four acquisitions, right? The current focus today is to see how we can monetize and realize value, integrate all these acquisitions, and see how we can realize the synergy coming from these assets that we have acquired, right? That's gonna be the immediate focus for us to realize the value from the synergy from all these assets that we acquired. Whether we'll go for further M&A, I think perhaps a lot more selective in terms of if there's a need for mergers and acquisitions. Dato'?
No, I was just gonna add to that. At the end of the day, EDOTCO has a roadmap and has looked at many assets that could likely be on the table. You know, because MNOs begin to realize that the asset-light approach insofar as the tower business, tower assets are concerned, is the right way to go. You know, we're not even suggesting that we have unlimited borrowing capacity or anything like that. We just need to be disciplined and choose the right assets to acquire. Philippines happens to be one of them.
There will be, in due course, other assets, or for, that will come to the market, but the priority right now is to, as Adlan say, to, try to extract value from the acquisitions they've made, put the house in order, integrate, streamline, those businesses that we've just acquired over the last six months. I think that's the priority for now. Yeah. Clear?
Yep. Okay. Thank you, Dato'. That concludes the call today. A slight overrun. Dato', would you have any final closing remarks?
Yeah. This is part of our Axiata 5.0 strategy, as Vivek mentioned just now. Insofar as EDOTCO is concerned, it is a new growth area. At the same time, it presents an opportunity for us to add value. There will also be some work on portfolio optimizing, which Adlan referred to. That's work in progress, insofar as EDOTCO is concerned. I think so far as the plans are concerned, we're on track. You know, the key thing right now is for us to consolidate the businesses we've acquired, so that we can really extract a lot of value from these businesses. Thank you for joining us this morning, and I hope to see you soon.
Please, feel free to connect with Clare and Mona if you have other further questions that we can address beyond the time constraint this morning. Thank you, Adlan.
Thank you.
Anis.
Anthony.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. That concludes our call today. Thank