Posted on
February 21, 2013 10:37:59 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
PROPERTY
DEVELOPER Alphaland Corp. has achieved the 10% minimum public ownership level
required by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) after an offshore shareholder
sold shares, becoming the first suspended firm to comply with the public float
rule, Alphaland said in a disclosure yesterday.
“Alphaland Corp. wishes to inform the
Philippine Stock Exchange that it has complied with the 10% minimum public
ownership requirement,” the firm said.
“On Dec. 31,
2012, Alphaland Holdings (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., a shareholder of the
corporation, sold 49,608,000 common shares of stock of the corporation at a
price of P19.00 per share to a qualified buyer. The transaction was done
outside the trading facilities of the exchange. Late in Jan. 2, 2013, Alphaland
was informed of the transaction.”
Alphaland
Holdings (Singapore) held a 13.06% stake or 259.17 million shares in Alphaland
as of end-2012, according to the latter’s Top 100 Stockholders list.
Alphaland
also paid last month a P186,030 documentary stamp tax and a P44.64-million
capital gains tax for the share sale as part of sanctions imposed on listed
firms that failed to meet the minimum public ownership level by the end of last
year.
Trading of
shares of such firms within the PSE system was also suspended.
These firms
have until the end of June to meet the requirement, or face immediate forced
delisting.
Alphaland’s
public float after the share sale was not immediately known as company
officials were not available for comment yesterday. Its profile on the PSE Web
site showed it ended 2012 with an 8.3% public ownership level.
Eight other
listed firms have fallen short of the minimum public ownership level:
• Cosmos
Bottling Corp. (1.79%);
• Nextstage,
Inc. (1.20%);
• PAL
Holdings, Inc. (2.30%);
• Philcomsat
Holdings Corp. (9.60%);
• PNOC
Exploration Corp. (0.21%);
• San Miguel
Brewery, Inc. (0.61%);
• San Miguel
Properties, Inc. (0.06%); and
• Southeast
Asia Cement Holdings, Inc. (2.41%).
San Miguel
Brewery and San Miguel Properties have already opted to exit the stock
exchange, with the former yesterday formally asking the bourse to be delisted
on May 15.
Alphaland
shares were last traded on Dec. 28, 2012 at P19.50 apiece. -- FJGDLF
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