Thursday February 4, 10:39 AM Eastern time
Company Press Release
Global Telemedia to Acquire International Holding Company
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 1999--
GTMI to Enter Philippine Telecommunications Market
Global Telemedia International, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GTMI - news "GTMI") announced today that it has
entered into a preliminary agreement to acquire Bentley House Furniture Company ("BHFC"), a Philippine holding
company with interests in: telecommunications agricultural mining timber export and furniture manufacturing.
When the transaction is complete, the combined company plans to form The Mindanao Telecommunications
Company for the purpose of providing voice, data and video services, both conventionally and via the internet, to
the major island of Mindanao, population in excess of 16,000,000. The exact time for the introduction of such
service was not disclosed.
Jonathon Bentley-Stevens, BHFC's Chief Executive Officer stated: "BHFC is located in the "Trade Free Zone" in
Mindanao's largest city, Davao, which is part of the BIMP-EAGA Borderless Trade Agreement between Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Similar to NAFTA, BIMP-EAGA serves a combined population of over
400 million people. We believe that this region is going to enjoy major growth in the immediate future and we are
very satisfied to have forged a strategic alliance with an emerging communications partner like GTMI. BHFC has
net assets in excess of US120,000,000. The company is making those assets available for the purpose of
establishing the credit facilities necessary for the combined companies to realize their new joint business plan."
Roderick A. McClain, GTMI's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer added: "This acquisition positions the
company to introduce new emerging technologies into areas that presently do not have extensive infrastructure in
place. The acquisition also allows us to immediately fulfill the financial requirements necessary to proceed with our
other contracts for the marketing of CyberAir Communications, Inc. services (release -11/09/98) as well as other
pending carrier contracts."
BHFC is presently in the process of establishing itself as a provider of telecommunications in the Philippines
through the introduction of new technologies.
The company also holds all the timber rights on the 60,000 acre combined plantations of Kapai and Kaics, located
in Mindanao, with combined reserves of more than 1,020,000 cubic meters of Mahogany and furniture grade
hardwoods. These properties have been independently appraised at a value of US850,430,577 by a Philippine
government agency the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR). These timberland
resources are suitable for manufacturing export quality furniture for hotels and resorts, export grade lumber and
telephone and utility poles.
BHFC has existing facilities for the milling and finishing of raw timber as well as a "state of the art" furniture facility,
designed and financed with the assistance of Sumitomo Corporation, with whom BHFC has an international
agreement. This factory is believed by the management of BHFC to be one of the largest and most modern
furniture factories in the Philippines. BHFC has entered into several contracts with major hotels, in development, to
provide them furniture, fixtures and equipment. BHFC can provide prospective clients services from the initial
designs all the way through complete furnishings and anticipates great success for this "hospitality division."
Additionally, BHFC has an export guarantee with the Philippine government in the amount of US50,000,000 per
year to export furniture and semi-finished timber products under a "Counter Trade" agreement to offset essential
government purchases.
BHFC is headquartered in Makati City, Philippines. The company has additional offices in Manila, Davao, New
York and Brunei.
BHFC will submit certain members of its management team for election to the Board of Directors of GTMI as well
as enlisting two qualified outside members to the Board of Directors in preparation for GTMI to seek re-listing for
trading on the NASDAQ small cap exchange. The timing for seeking such relisting has not been determined.
The acquisition is subject to both companies completing independent due diligence investigations and formal
documentation, and the Company anticipates closing within forty-five days. The terms of the acquisition were not
announced.
GTMI terminated its previously announced acquisition of CIS Systems because of financial problems and
instability in the region formerly known as the Soviet Union.
Global Telemedia International, Inc. (GTMI) is a full-service communications company focusing on international
communications networking in emerging countries. The company also holds the necessary certificates of
conveyance with the applicable public service communications in the Continental United States as well as an
International carriers license (214). Additionally, GTMI is developing its own proprietary technology to
complement these efforts.
The statements contained in this release may contain forward-looking statements relating to such matters as
anticipated financial performance, business prospects, technological developments, new products, research and
development activities and similar matters. The Private Securities Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for
forward-looking statements. In order to comply with the terms of the safe harbor, the Company notes that a
variety of factors could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results of other
expenditures expressed in the Company's forward-looking statements.
Contact:
GTMI
Mark Wachs, Mark Wachs and Associates, New York
212/832-2800
or
BHFC, Makati City, Philippines
Jonathon Bentley-Stevens, 011-632-810-7776 |
