The consortium taking conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. back to private hands has bought more than 97 of the company’s total issued and outstanding shares, enough for its delisting at the Philippine Stock Exchange.
MPIC chairman, president and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said he was amazed by the level of acceptance the tender offer received from the minority shareholders.
“What are the implicit messages of that? The times have moved on. My theory is that conglomerates are passé. There’s a focus now on specific companies that are simpler to analyze like Meralco. (It has) one product only. Power. No need to add sauce or color,” he said.
According to him, Filipinos have a natural aversion to big things, which explains why the local stock exchange is too small and how this affects the liquidity of the market.
In its disclosure, consortium members Metro Pacific Holdings Inc., GT Capital Holdings Inc., Japan’s Mitsui and Co. Ltd. and MIG Holdings Inc. tendered a total 5.46 billion MPIC shares equivalent to 19.04 percent of its issued and outstanding shares.
Together with the shareholding of the bidders, qualifying common shares of members of the MPIC board of directors and other non- public shares, this equal 97.22 percent of MPIC’s issued and outstanding shares.
Significant holders GT Capital and state-owned Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), however, held on to their shareholdings and raised their stake to 11.92 percent, Both were supportive of the consortium’s delisting plans.
Pangilinan said GSIS is entitled to one board seat after the delisting.
“Considering these results, when the tendered shares are accepted and crossed, the bidders expect MPIC’s public float to fall below 10 percent and pave the way for MPIC’s voluntary delisting, in accordance with voluntary delisting procedures of the Philippine Stock Exchange,” the consortium said in a statement.
This development closed tender offer. The cross date of the tendered shares is on 26 September when MPIC’s public float falls to 2.78 percent. The settlement date is on 28 September.
At the sideline of the mining conference on Wednesday, Pangilinan said he is focused on listing MPIC’s major operating units, starting with Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. next year.
Maynilad Water Services Inc., the West Zone concessionaire, is also eyed for listing between 2025 and 2026.
