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Lopez Holdings Corp. announced Tuesday that it was withdrawing from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) in an effort to strengthen its ownership and simplify its corporate structure.
In a filing, the Lopez-led conglomerate said its board had authorized the company’s decision to voluntarily withdraw from the exchange’s main board of directors.
It also said that First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH) offered to acquire 20 to 45.56 percent of the total issued and outstanding common shares of the company from all shareholders at P3.85 each.
Shares owned by parent company Lopez Inc. are excluded.
FPH is a member of the Lopez Group of Companies and a sister company of ABS-CBN Corp. FPH’s subsidiaries include First Gen Corp., Energy Development Corp. and Rockwell Land Corp.
“It is always a good sign when you see an offer for your shares with a significant premium over the market price. We will be happy for shareholders who decide to take advantage [themselves] of this opportunity to liquidate their investment ”, said the president, director of operations and director of finance of López Holdings, Salvador Tirona, in the presentation.
If FPH’s takeover bid is successful, Lopez Holdings would delist to consolidate its ownership and streamline its corporate structure by reducing the number of publicly traded holding companies in the group from two to one.
The offer price represents a 25 percent premium over the company’s closing price of P3.08 on Friday.
It also represents a 41 percent, 43 percent and 36 percent premium over the three-month, six-month, and 12-month volume-weighted average price of Lopez Holdings of P2.74, P2.69, and P2.82, respectively; and a 22 percent premium over the company’s six-month closing maximum of P3.15 as of November 27.
“The Lopez Holdings board of directors approved the hiring of an independent financial advisor to provide a fair opinion on the price of the FPH takeover bid,” the company said.
Trading in Lopez Holdings shares was suspended on Tuesday. It is expected to resume today at 9 am
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