January 12, 2016 8:37 pm by KATRINA MENNEN A. VALDEZ, REPORTER
To take advantage of low prices
SIX listed firms including Lopez-led
Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the Enrique Razon-led International Container
Services Inc. (ICTSI), and Henry Sy’s Belle Corp. on Monday said they bought
back their own shares from the market to take advantage of the recent slump in
their respective share prices.
In separate disclosures to the
Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, at least six corporations said they have
repurchased their own shares. These include EDC, ICTSI, Belle Corp., Bloomberry
Resorts Corp., Phinma Corp. and Splash Corp.
“This development indicates that their
respective share prices have become attractive given the steep sell-off in the
past week including last Monday,” April Lyn Tan, head of research at COL
Financial Group Inc., said in a phone interview.
EDC has earmarked P4 billion for its
buyback program and has repurchased 900,000 shares as of this writing, with
prices starting at P5.53 a share.
ICTSI has repurchased 550,000 shares
at P58 per share, equivalent to a total of P337.83 million.
Belle Corp. bought back 839,000 shares
at prices ranging from P2.40 to P2.54 a share for a total of P141.675 million.
Phinma and Splash repurchased their
own shares for P14.03 million and P1.88 million, respectively.
Astro del Castillo, president and
managing director of First Grade Finance Inc., said in a phone interview that
the said firms are clearly taking advantage of the lower prices to repurchase
their own shares at a bargain.
“This is actually a good investment
move on the part of the companies given [their] much lower [share] prices these
days. It is also a means of boosting the confidence level of investors toward
these corporations,” he added.
Lester Azurin, analyst at Unicapital
Securities Inc., said that the buyback program is a remedial measure to support
the value of these companies’ shares as well as to take advantage of the softer
prices seen in recent days.
“To assure investors that companies,
despite the slump in prices, are still very much in good standing,” Azurin
said.
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