The country's third-biggest mobile handset vendor Pantech has decided to integrate the newly acquired independent cellular phone manufacturing subsidiary SKY Teletech with the parent firm. In a recent regulatory filing, Pantech said the board of directors of both companies decided on the proposition to integrate SKY Teletech, former mobile handset manufacturing arm of Korea's largest mobile carrier SK Telecom, with Pantech in a meeting yesterday. Pantech's board anticipates that it would be able to complete integration of SKY Teletech by December should the shareholders approve the deal at a meeting slated for Oct. 13. The board concluded on the exchange ratio of 11.59 shares of Pantech common stock for each stock of would-be-defunct SKY Teletech, it said. The face value of a Pantech share is 500 won and that of SKY Teletech is 5,000 won. Pantech common stocks are traded at 4,454 won and SKY Teletech shares at 51,641 won, respectively. Pantech's shares are on the rise following the recent acquisition of SKY Teletech. "We are carrying out the integration to boost our international competitiveness by maximizing the synergy of the merger and acquisition (M&A) deal," said Pantech in a statement. "Through the integration, we will be able to successfully combine Pantech's prowess in global system for mobile communication (GSM) technology and overseas marketing know-how with code division multiple access (CDMA) technological power and premium brand power of SKY Teletech," it added. With the recent M&A deal, Pantech has emerged as the second-biggest mobile handset brand in Korea with 26 percent market share after Samsung Electronics. SKY Teletech, formerly SK Teletech well known for its premium SKY brand handsets, controlled 9 percent of the domestic cellular phone market and Pantech 17 percent. Pantech emerged as the single biggest shareholder of SKY Teletech by purchasing 60 percent of SKY Teletech shares, or 4.5 million shares, from previous parent firm SK Telecom on July 12 for 292.4 billion won, 64,366 won per share. SK Telecom still retains a 29 percent stake in SKY Teletech. Pantech's handset manufacturing subsidiaries target a combined 4.5 trillion won sales this year; Pantech 1.2 trillion won, Curitel 2.5 trillion won and SKY Teletech 800 billion won. Pantech unveiled its first slim bar-type SKY brand mobile handset for KTF and LG Telecom services earlier this month. SKY Teletech used to churn out phones only for SK Telecom for the mobile network operator uses different bandwidth from that shared by KTF and LG Telecom.