By Roderick T. dela Cruz

THE Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. led by Manuel Pangilinan confirmed yesterday that it is in talks with the Lopez family to acquire more shares in Manila Electric Co., the country?s largest power distributor.

Reacting to a Cocktales column in Standard Today, the PLDT group disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that it was talking with the Lopezes to gain more than one board seat in Meralco.

?There are... ongoing discussions between PLDT and the Lopez Group, but no agreement has yet been reached or signed between the parties,? PLDT said in its disclosure.

The Lopez family and San Miguel Corp., which is diversifying into power ventures, both hold a 34-percent stake in Meralco, and it is uncertain which will emerge as the controlling group. Meralco stocks closed at P92.50 yesterday.

PLDT said Moody?s Investors Service had placed the company?s Baa2 senior unsecured local currency issuer rating under review for possible upgrade.

Moody?s also affirmed PLDT?s Ba2 positive foreign currency bond rating.

?The review has been prompted by PLDT?s ability to retain a consistently strong operating and financial profile despite a slowing economic environment and rapidly deepening cellular penetration,? said Laura Acres, Moody?s vice president.

?The company currently holds a 52-percent subscriber market share in the Philippine wireless segment and 60 percent in the fixed-line business, both of which contribute to PLDT?s healthy free cash flow generation capabilities,? said Acres, who also serves as Moody?s lead analyst for PLDT.

?While PLDT maintained its high-dividend payout and large capital expenditure in 2008, its financial profile with adjusted debt/EBITDA of around one time and EBITDA-capex/Interest of over nine times, remained strong for its current rating level,? Moody?s said.

The credit-rating firm said the review would focus on growth prospects at the consolidated level, given that the market for telephone service was nearly saturated and PLDT?s capital requirements for maintaining its network and rolling out new technologies.

As of December 2008, PLDT had 35.2 million cellular, 1.8 million fixed-line, and 1.0 million broadband subscribers, making it the country?s leading telecommunications service provider.

The major shareholders in PLDT are First Pacific and NTT Communications/NTT DoCoMo, with effective common shareholdings of 26.3 percent and 20.9 percent as of January 2009. The remaining common shares are publicly held.

In a separate development, a lawyer-consultant hired by the Presidential Commission on Good Government has asked the Supreme Court to compel the commission, Pangilinan and the Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp. to pay him P273.03 million representing his professional services for the successful recovery of 111,415 shares of PTIC in PLDT.

In his petition, lawyer Dennis Taningco sought the reversal of the Sandiganbayan?s Fourth Division in August 2008 that denied his claim for an attorney?s lien. With Rey E. Requejo