Published
December 7, 2017, 10:00 PM By James A. Loyola
Semirara Mining and
Power Corporation is starting a buy back program today (December 8) for P2
billion worth of its shares after the price took a hit from Congress’ plan to
impose a hefty tax on coal.
In a disclosure to the
Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said its Board of Directors approved the
buy back program at a special meeting held yesterday.
The buy-back program
aims to “enhance shareholder value and to provide stockholders an opportunity
to liquidate their investments.”
Under the plan, SMPC
will buy back up to P2 billion worth of its common shares based on trading
price at the open market through the trading facilities of the PSE.
Currently, SMPC has an
authorized capital stock of 10 billion shares of which 4.26 billion shares have
been issued and 4.26 billion shares are outstanding while 3.46 billion are held
as treasury shares.
SMPC shares were
trading at a little above P42.00 per share when the Senate proposed to include
tax on coal in the government’s tax reform program. This prompted investors to
sell down the shares to its year low of P34.70 per share.
While SMPC has started
out as a purely coal mining company, its diversification into the power
generation industry has resulted in the firm deriving about 40 percent of its
revenues from the sale of electricity.
SMPC said it has
tripled its royalty payments to the Department of Energy (DOE) to P1.69 billion
in the first half of 2017 from P575 million during the same period last year.
The firm said the surge
in government remittances was driven by the SMPC’s increased production and
expanding operations.
The company is
targeting an annual coal production of 16 million metric tons in the next two
to three years. Last year, SMPC produced 12 million metric tons of the
indigenous fuel.
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