Japan's NTT DoCoMo and Hong Kong's First Pacific have bought a combined 6.4 per cent stake in Philippine Long Distance Telephone from the Philippine government, keeping out a private equity group that made a rival bid for the stake.

NTT DoCoMo, PLDT's second largest shareholder, agreed to pay 13bn pesos (US$264m) for half of the stake, raising the NTT group's holding in the Philippines' biggest phone group to 16.6 per cent.