Philippine telco PLDT has ended talks to sell a stake in its data center business to CVC, but talks are ongoing with other parties. The company may drop the sale plans entirely, however.

As reported by Reuters and others, PLDT this week confirmed it had terminated negotiations with European private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for the sale of a minority stake in its data center business.

PLDT chairman and chief executive Manuel Pangilinan said the discussions had ended, but the company was still in talks with other parties.

“We did not extend. We're in discussions at the moment with another potential investor, a foreign investor,” Pangilinan told a briefing, but declined to name the new bidder.

"There was some issue on the valuation itself, some proposed adjustments. It got to the zone where, do we really want to sell or not at this stage," Pangilinan said.

PLDT owns and operates 11 data centers throughout the Philippines. Its data center unit, Vitro, is a fully-owned subsidiary of ePLDT, the ICT holding company of the PLDT Group. The company considered selling its data centers for $500 million in 2021, but the deal was put on hold, and revived an adjusted version of the plan in May 2024 to sell a minority stake.

PLDT previously ended negotiations with NTT around a stake sale in its Vitro data center unit; NTT reportedly wanted a 51 percent interest in the company, while PLDT was only willing to offer 49 percent.

CVC was named as a potential buyer back in August. At the time it was reported another company is allegedly waiting in the wings to snap up a share should the CVC talks fall through.

The telco previously mooted interest in listing its data center business on the Philippine Stock Exchange through a real estate investment trust.