Leandro Leviste, founder of Solar Philippines, one of the largest integrated solar farms developers, said his constant search for value has led him to the acquisition of a substantial stake in ABS-CBN Corp., whose bottomline has been bleeding red since Congress decided not to renew its broadcast franchise in 2020.
“Mura (value for money),” Leviste told reporters late Wednesday when asked about the investment that gave him an 8.5 percent stake in ABS-CBN, the broadcast company that launched the career of his mother, Senator Loren Legarda, as one of the most trusted broadcast journalists in the country.
He said if more ABS-CBN shares will be offered, he would be a willing buyer. “The market cap now (of ABS-CBN) is P4 billion. I don’t think the Lopezes will allow the company to remain at P4 billion,” he added.
Leviste, the bespectacled Yale University alumnus and unassuming billionaire, said that even if he secures more shares of the listed media group, he won’t demand a seat on ABS-CBN’s board.
The recent sale of a controlling stake in SP New Energy Corp. to the MVP Group’s MGen Renewable Energy Inc. for P15.9 billion has given Leviste a war chest to diversify his investment portfolio that until recently was primarily focused on renewable energy.
Leviste’s value-investing strategy brought to focus Roxas Holdings Inc., which owns vast landholdings in Nasugbu, Batangas but whose shares have been trading below their P1 par value because of its troubled sugar operations. Roxas Holdings last traded at P0.65, shortly before its closed its sugar mill in February.
Leviste said the game plan for Roxas Holdings is to develop a portion of the company’s 264-hectare property along Tagaytay-Nasugbu highway into an industrial estate while a solar farm will be built at the back of that real estate development to create more jobs in Nasugbu and ensure stable power supply.
He said Nasugbu is an ideal location once an expressway linking the Batangas town to Cavitex via the Ternate-Maragondon route. He said that route will cut travel time to Nasugbu from Manila to an hour.
