PLDT Inc. expects to raise around $400 million from the initial tranche of its planned Vitro Inc. real estate investment trust (REIT) listing, which would cover eight mature data centers with a combined capacity of 27 megawatts (MW).
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the company’s Annual Stockholders’ Meeting (ASM) on Tuesday, PLDT Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said the eight data centers would form the core assets to be injected into the REIT, with a fourth-quarter launch targeted this year.
Proceeds from the listing would go primarily toward reducing PLDT’s debt load.
A second, larger tranche is already being contemplated. Pangilinan said the company’s data center in Santa Rosa, Laguna-significantly larger than the initial portfolio at 50 megawatts-could be injected into the REIT at a later stage, potentially adding at least $1 billion in value.
‘Santa Rosa will be about, at least, a billion (dollars),’ Pangilinan said.
The decision to pursue a REIT listing over a direct sale to strategic investors came down to valuation. Pangilinan said potential buyers were not offering the prices PLDT believed the assets warranted.
‘We’re not getting the kind of values we think we ought to get for the data centers.’
Pangilinan said a 49-percent economic stake priced at $300 million-based on certain dividend yield assumptions – implies a total valuation of roughly $600 million for the 27-MW portfolio. Raising the offer to $400 million for a comparable stake pushes the implied total to around $800 million, a figure Pangilinan said more accurately reflects what the assets are worth.
‘If you get $300 million, it’s only for 49-percent economic interest-then you look at $600 million or so for 100 percent,’ Pangilinan said. ‘You get $400 million, then it’s $800 million. Just for the 27 megawatts.’
PLDT’s board on Tuesday approved the pursuit of a Vitro REIT.
The approval follows the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) issuance of Memorandum Circular No. 1, Series of 2026, which revised the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9856, or the Real Estate Investment Trust Act of 2009.
The amended rules broadened the REIT framework to include digital infrastructure assets such as information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and data centers-a regulatory change that effectively unlocked the listing path PLDT had been waiting on.
The decision ends years of deliberation over how best to monetize what has been valued at around $1 billion in data center assets.
PLDT had previously weighed a REIT listing at least twice – first in 2024, when Pangilinan floated it as a contingency should equity talks with Japan’s NTT Data collapse, and again in 2025 as the company sought to reduce debt and build liquidity. Those NTT negotiations eventually broke down.
UBS AG and BPI Capital are advising ePLDT Inc. on the proposed Vitro REIT listing.