Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Power firm moves to hike float


Business World Online
Posted on December 04, 2012 09:51:20 PM


LISTED SPC Power Corp. expects to meet the bourse’s public float requirement by yearend, a company official said yesterday.

  The company, which now operates the 145.8-megawatt Naga complex in Cebu, said in a disclosure yesterday that its board of directors approved in its meeting last Sept. 8 the sale of treasury shares equivalent to 74,494,997 shares “a prevailing market price.”

“The sale of the treasury shares is one of the ways that is being considered by the corporation to comply with the 10% minimum public ownership [requirement],” the disclosure read.

The company added that it had already sold “an equivalent of 100,000 shares at P4.80 per share” as of Nov. 26.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) had identified 27 listed companies as of end-June that had yet to achieve the minimum 10% float. These companies were given up to yearend to comply, or face sanctions leading to forced delisting.

“Present stockholdings... by the public [in SPC] is about 4.32%. We have to sell shares equivalent to about 5.68% to the public to comply with the minimum public ownership of 10% by Dec. 31,” SPC Corporate Secretary Alfredo S. Ballesteros said in an e-mail yesterday, adding that the company also expects to raise “around P400 million” from the share sale.

Mr. Ballesteros said that besides the sale of treasury shares, the company is also looking at selling some stocks of principal stockholders to meet the float requirement.

SPC Power saw its net income grow nearly threefold to P1.063 billion as of September from P365.38 million in the same nine months last year, as revenues grew faster than costs and expenses. Specifically, revenues rose by 52% to P1.753 billion from P1.151 billion, while cost of services related to plant operations increased by a slower 17.4% to P1.052 billion from P896.867 million.

Its shares yesterday remained unchanged at P4.80 apiece.

Last month, Lafarge Republic, Inc. reported it had met PSE’s float rule after a share swap with majority investor Southeast Asia Cement Holdings, Inc. raised its public ownership to 10.29% from 6%, while San Miguel Pure Foods Co., Inc. boosted its float to 15.08% from 0.08% after parent San Miguel Corp. sold some of its shares in the unit.

First Metro Investments Corp. said yesterday it will delist on Dec. 17, following Alaska Milk Corp., PLDT Communication and Energy Ventures, Inc. and Chinatrust Commercial Bank (Philippines), Inc. that left the stock exchange earlier this year, due to their decision not to hike their float. -- CAMCF    source

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