LOPEZ HOLDINGS Corp. has asked that its common shares be delisted from the bourse’s main board after its stocks’ public float fell below the minimum public ownership requirement with the completion of an associate firm’s tender offer.
In a statement dated Dec. 14 but disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the holding firm said it had filed a petition for voluntary delisting of its 4,628,672,611 common shares from the Philippine Stock Exchange, which requires listed companies to have a minimum public ownership of 10%.
The voluntary delisting follows Lopez Holdings’ disclosure on Dec. 1 about its board’s nod on the tender offer of First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH) to acquire from shareholders a minimum of 20% and a maximum of 45.56% of the total issued and outstanding common shares. The shares were priced at P3.85 apiece.
Excluded from the tender offer are the shares owned by its ultimate parent entity, Lopez, Inc., which has agreed not to tender its common shares.
Lopez Holdings also said that a fairness report from independent financial adviser KPMG/R.G. Manabat & Co. dated Dec. 14 provides that the fair value of the listed common shares ranges from P2.34 to P3.92 each as of the cut-off date, Sept. 30, 2020.
As such the tender offer price of P3.85 per share is within the computed range of Lopez Holdings’ equity value per share, the firm said.
It quoted the financial adviser as saying that the price is deemed “fair and reasonable from a financial point of view, as of the cut-off date.”
As of Nov. 30, Lopez, Inc. owned 54.44% of the listed and outstanding common shares of Lopez Holdings, while the remaining 45.56% was owned by the remaining shareholders.
On Tuesday, shares in Lopez Holdings at the stock exchange were down 0.27% at P3.72 each.