MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan on Tuesday said he is in talks with JG Summit president and chief operating officer Lance Gokongwei for another partnership -- this time in the energy sector.

If successful, the deal widens the two groups' alliance that currently covers telecommunications and airports.

Pangilinan says the Gokongweis are interested in building a power plant in Batangas.

Just last month, the two groups agreed to jointly bid for the Mactan Cebu International Airport project the government is bidding out this month.

The Gokongwei's Sun Cellular brand, which PLDT bought two years ago helped drive PLDT's profit by a six-fold in the fourth quarter last year. That brought the company's full year net income to P35.5 billion, up 12%.

PLDT's cellular subscriber base rose 10% to 69.9 million, about 15 million of which came from Sun Cellular.