PLDT Capital, the investment arm of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., said Tuesday it invested $5 million in a cloud-based customer loyalty platform in Israel.
PLDT Capital said it signed a convertible preferred stock purchase agreement with AppCard for $5 million. The convertible preferred stock was paid on Oct. 9.
AppCard is engaged in the business of developing, marketing, selling and servicing digital loyalty program platforms.
It was the second major investment of PLDT Capital in a foreign company this year. It earlier invested $10 million in Phunware, a US-based mobile services and application company.
Phunware, through its pioneering multiscreen service platform, gives companies everything they need to engage seamlessly with their customers through mobile devices, from indoor and outdoor location-based marketing and advertising to content management, notifications and analytics, to indoor mapping, navigation and way finding.
The partnership will enable PLDT’s subsidiary, ePLDT, to market and exclusively distribute Phunware’s targeted mobile and multiscreen solutions in Southeast Asia.
PLDT president and chief executive Napoleon Nazareno earlier said PLDT Capital expected to close three investment deals worth $15 million to $30 million before the end of the year.
He said the new investments were more of digital mobile platforms.
PLDT Capital has an initial budget of $50 million to support PLDT business units, which include Smart, ePLDT, Digital5 and Voyage.
PLDT invested 333 million euros in Rocket Internet AG of Germany in 2014.
PLDT earlier reported a net income of P25.3 billion in the January to September period, down by 9 percent from P28 billion last year.
Excluding foreign exchange transactions and other non-recurring items, core profit hit P27.08 billion, down by 5 percent from P28.86 billion last year. Third-quarter core profit amounted to P8.15 billion, down from P8.73 billion last year.
Consolidated revenue was flat at P127.87 billion in the first nine months from P127.32 billion last year.