Posted on
February 25, 2013 10:41:58 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
DEVELOPER San
Miguel Properties, Inc., which is set to exit the Philippine Stock Exchange
(PSE) due to its lower-than-required public ownership level, has pushed back
the buyback of its publicly held shares, the firm said in a disclosure
yesterday.
“Please be
advised that San Miguel Properties management has approved, as of today (Feb.
25), the new tender offer period which shall commence on March 6 and end on
April 5, subject to regulatory approvals,” the disclosure read, referring to
the company’s bid to purchase its minority-held shares in line with its planned
voluntary delisting.
The original
tender offer period was set to run from Feb. 27 to March 26.
Officials of
San Miguel Properties were not immediately available yesterday for the reason
for new tender offer period.
Last Feb. 5,
San Miguel Properties’ board approved the company’s delisting, as well as a
tender offer for shares held by minority stockholders.
ATR Kim Eng
Capital Partners, Inc. and SMC Stock Transfer Service Corp. were tapped as
financial advisor and tender offer agent, respectively, for the transaction
while SyCip Salazar and Hernandez & Gatmaitan will serve as external
counsel.
While San
Miguel Properties did not state its reason for delisting, Ramon S. Ang,
president of San Miguel Properties parent San Miguel Corp., last year told
reporters that the conglomerate’s non-float-compliant units -- including San
Miguel Properties -- could be delisted as they were unlikely to meet a yearend
deadline to attain a minimum 10% public ownership level required by the bourse.
San Miguel
Propeties, San Miguel Brewery, Inc., and PAL Holdings, Inc. all have
lower-than-required public floats of 0.065, 0.61% and 2.30%, respectively, and
are among 10 firms whose shares were suspended from trading since Jan. 2.
Last Feb. 18,
San Miguel Brewery formally asked PSE to be delisted on May 15.
Aside from
the three San Miguel units, five other listed firms have fallen short of the
minimum public ownership level and still have to meet the said rule: Cosmos
Bottling Corp. (1.79%); Nextstage, Inc. (1.20%); Philcomsat Holdings Corp.
(9.60%); PNOC Exploration Corp. (0.21%); and Southeast Asia Cement Holdings, Inc.
(2.41%).
Allied
Banking Corp. with a 1.51% float, merged with Philippine National Bank last
Feb. 9, while Ongpin-controlled property Alphaland Corp. last week said it had
complied with the 10% minimum public float rule.
Shares of San
Miguel Properties were last traded on Nov. 13 last year at P700 each. -- FJGDLF
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